Mandatory Sick Days Passes The Assembly Judiciary Committee

Paid mandatory sick leave legislation has been proposed and defeated in recent California legislation sessions. Unfortunately, this legislation has reared it’s ugly head once more and this time it has been passed by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The proposed legislation, which would require California employers to provide paid sick days to employees (other than those covered by collective bargaining agreements) is now before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Under the proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 400, employers with 10 or less employees would have to offer full-time employees 5 days of paid sick time annually. Employers with more than 10 employees would have to offer full-time employees 9 paid sick days per year. Furthermore, the bill would provide that this sick leave is mandatory for any employee who works in California for 7 or more days in a calendar year (collective bargaining agreements excluded).

The specifics of the bill states that the purpose of the leave would be available for diagnosis, care, or treatment of health conditions of the employee or an employee’s family member, or for leave related to domestic violence or sexual assault. In addition, the bill also provides that there shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer denies an employee the right to use sick days, discharges, threatens to discharge, demotes, suspend, or in any manner discriminates against an employee within 90 days of filing a complaint under the statute or participates in any investigation related to denial of sick leave.

We are following this legislation very closely and will keep you updated as things develop.