Expanding provisions of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to employers with five or more employees ignores the economic impact of the pandemic and could be "particularly devastating" to dental practices, the California Dental Association (CDA) stated in a recent article.
As proposed by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), SB 1383 would reduce the CFRA employee threshold, which provides employees up to 12 workweeks of protected unpaid leave that employees can take for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Unpaid leave can also be taken for a serious health condition of the employee or the person's child, parent, or spouse.
The unpaid leave is concurrent with leave provided under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which also provides up to 12 weeks of protected unpaid leave. At the moment, the CFRA only applies to employers with 50 or more employees, but Jackson's bill would reduce that threshold to five or more employees, which would affect many dental practices in California. The CDA estimates that 80% of California practices have 10 or fewer employees, with the average practice having six.
Jackson's bill would negatively affect dental practices because, due to the specialized role of each staff member, one employee is unlikely to be able to fill in for another, which would necessitate hiring a new person during the unpaid leave and put a strain on the dental practice.
Also, SB 1383 would take effect on January 1, which leaves little time for small employers to start complying with the new requirements. Instead, the CDA is urging legislators to lower the threshold to 20 instead of five employees and/or delay the bill's implementation by a year or two. Doing so would take into account the current reality for dental practices, which are still recovering from the monthslong shutdown that began in March.
SB 1383 passed out of the Senate with a narrow majority in early July and will next be heard in the Assembly. The Assembly has until August 31 to pass the current or amended bill and send it to the governor.
