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Expanding Family Leave in Today's California: Why Governor Schwarzenegger Should Sign SB 727 and AB 537
By Kate Karpilow
Two bills now sit on the Governor’s desk that would help California workers provide care for loved ones when they are seriously ill. Governor Schwarzenegger must decide if he will sign or veto these measures.
Carina B. is watching.
When her brother had a heart attack – a brother with no wife or children – she learned she could not take family leave to care for him.
Under current state law, many Californians can take time off work to care for a seriously ill parent, child, spouse, or domestic partner and have their jobs protected through the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and/or receive partial wages through California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program.
These laws support caregiving for some Californians, but in today’s crazy quilt of family structures, not everyone is lucky enough to have an eligible member of their immediate family available to care for them.
A recent Senate Office of Research report showed that siblings and grandparents were the family members most likely to be turned down for California’s paid family leave – because the law doesn’t cover these relatives as caregivers.
Enter Senator Sheila Kuehl and Assemblyman Sandré Swanson – a dynamic duo who sponsored two bills to expand California’s family leave laws. Both bills received support from the Legislature.
Senate Bill 727 (Kuehl) extends California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) law to allow eligible workers to receive partial pay when they must miss work to care for a seriously ill sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or parent-in-law. Paid leave continues to be funded entirely through employee contributions to the State Disability Insurance (SDI) Program.
Assembly Bill 537 (Swanson) expands the definition of family under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to allow an eligible worker to take job-protected leave to care for a seriously ill adult child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or parent-in-law.
Together, SB 727 and AB 537 serve as an antidote to the outdated notion that Harriet can always be at home to take care of Ozzie, or that Wally and the Beav live close enough to take care of Ward and June.
In today’s world, it’s not only partners, parents and children who may be called upon to care for family members – it is often grandparents, siblings and grandchildren who step in to fill the need.
(And if Californians are caring enough to care for family members, we should ensure they don’t face discrimination in the workplace, which would be accomplished by SB 836, another bill on the Governor’s desk.)
So it’s decision time for the Governor.
He deserves thanks for working overtime to solve the state’s health insurance crisis.
Let’s hope he also realizes that even when people have health insurance – and especially when they don’t, the seriously ill still need someone to drive them to the doctor, pay their bills, monitor their medications – and manage the onslaught of chores and responsibilities that confront primary caregivers.
And, as Carina B. knows. . . . . that someone may be your sister.
Carina B., a former resident of Vallejo, now lives in Utah.
Kate Karpilow founded the California Working Families Policy Summit and directs the California Center for Research on Women and Families, a program of the Public Health Institute. Opinions expressed in this column represent her own views and not necessarily those of PHI.
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