Legal Updates

California Enacts Military Spouse Leave Law

On October 9, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new state law, effective immediately, allowing spouses of certain members of the military to take unpaid leave from work to spend time with a member of the military who is on a leave of absence from deployment.  The California law is intended to “serve the families of those troops currently serving in military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to assure that these families are able to spend time together during the qualified member’s leave from deployment.”  California joins several other states, including Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska and New York, that have enacted similar laws providing unpaid employee leave for the family members of military personnel.

The new law, California Assembly Bill 392, adds Section 395.10 to the Military and Veterans Code to provide spouses of members of the Armed Forces, National Guard or Reserves (“qualified members”) with up to ten (10) days of unpaid leave during a “qualified leave period,” meaning a period when the qualified member is on leave from deployment during a “military conflict.”  The new law covers all public and private employers in California that employ twenty-five (25) or more employees, but is silent as to whether the calculation of this threshold includes employees based outside of California.  In order to qualify for the unpaid leave under the new law, the employee must:

(1)        be a spouse of a qualified member;

(2)        perform service for hire for an employer for an average of twenty (20) or more hours per week (the law, however, does not include independent contractors);

(3)        provide the qualified employer with notice, within two (2) business days of receiving official notice that the qualified member will be on leave from deployment, of his or her intention to take the leave; and

(4)        submit written documentation to the employer certifying that the member of the military will be on leave from deployment during the time the leave is provided.

The new law also contains a provision protecting from retaliation all qualified employees who request or take such leave.  A qualified employee’s benefits rights may not be affected by requesting or taking such leave.

We recommend that multi-state employers carefully review their employee leave policies to ensure compliance with the growing number of military family leave laws.