Understanding CFRA: Who Is Eligible for CFRA Leave

Adrienne L. Conrad & Emililia A. Arutunian

With the recent expansion of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), employers who previously were not covered under CFRA now find themselves having to navigate the murky waters of the law. From the basics. such as who exactly is eligible for CFRA leave, to the more complicated issues dealing with how CFRA works for pregnant employees, employers without experience in these matters could find themselves stepping on a proverbial land mine.

Covered Employers

Effective Jan. 1, 2021, private employers of five (5) or more employees within the United States are covered by CFRA. CFRA also applies to the California state and local governments as employers.

Covered Reasons for Leave

Eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks of CFRA leave for the following reasons:

care for their own serious health condition;
care for certain family members’ serious health condition;
to bond with a new child (by birth, adoption, or foster placement); or
for a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee’s spouse, registered domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces.

Eligible Employees

To be eligible for CFRA employees must meet two requirements: (1) the employee must have worked for the covered employer for more than 12 months; and (2) the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to their leave.

The requirement that the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite was eliminated effective Jan. 1, 2021.

***This article originally appeared on the Jackson Lewis’ Disability, Leave & Health Management blog and was reposted on the DMEC website with their permission.***