Department of Fair Employment and Housing Issues New Family Leave Form
Department of Fair Employment and Housing Issues New Family Leave Form

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently issued a new Certification of Health Care Provider form that employers may use for medical certification when an employee requests leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) or the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), due to the employee’s or the employee’s family member’s serious health condition.

This form is particularly useful to California employers for the reason that, unlike the Department of Labor FMLA health care provider certification forms, the DFEH form excludes questions requesting medical diagnosis, which California employers are not entitled to obtain under the CFRA with respect to their employees or their employees’ family members.

The CFRA and FMLA apply to employers with at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. Eligible employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to taking the leave. Similarly, California also provides baby bonding leave under the New Parent Leave Act (NPLA) for new parent employees who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to taking the leave. The NPLA applies to employers with at least 20 employees within a 75-mile radius. Employers should keep in mind that business entities with common management, operations, centralized control of labor relations, and/or common ownership may be considered a single employer for purposes of determining the number of employees employed.

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Joanne Warriner.

This blog is presented under protest by the law firm of Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP. It is essentially the random thoughts and opinions of someone who lives in the trenches of the war that often is employment law–he/she may well be a little shell-shocked.  So if you are thinking “woohoo, I just landed some free legal advice that will fix all my problems!”, think again. This is commentary, people, a sketchy overview of some current legal issue with a dose of humor, but commentary nonetheless; as if Dennis Miller were a lawyer…and still mildly amusing. No legal advice here; you would have to pay real US currency for that (unless you are my mom, and even then there are limits).  But feel free to contact us with your questions and comments—who knows, we might even answer you.  And if you want to spread this stuff around, feel free to do so, but please keep it in its present form (‘cause you can’t mess with this kind of poetry). Big news: Copyright 2019.  All rights reserved; yep, all of them. If you have any questions about this article, contact the writer directly, assuming he or she was brave enough to attach their name to it.

If you have any questions regarding this blog or your life in general, contact Kelly O. Scott, Esq., commander in chief of this blog and Head Honcho (official legal title) of ECJ’s Employment Law Department.

Tags: DOL

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