Labor & Employment Law Blog

On January 15, 2021, in the case of Scalia v. Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, 985 F.3d 742 (2021), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal decided that for an employee, who works a rotational schedule of seven days on, followed by seven days off, both his “on” and “off” weeks shall be used to calculate the length of “12 workweeks of leave” under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).  As such, when a rotational employee takes continuous leave, both his on and off weeks count toward his “workweeks of leave” under Section 2612(a)(1) of the FMLA.

Beginning July 1, 2020, California’s family temporary disability insurance program, also known as the paid family leave program (“PFL”), will provide partial wage replacement benefits for up to eight weeks in any 12-month period, which is an increase from the maximum of six weeks presently available.  The benefits are available for employee who take time off to bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child in connection with foster care or adoption.  For purposes of new child bonding, California touts the expanded leave benefit as providing each family with a total of four months of PFL – two months per parent.

The counties of Fresno, Napa, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonoma, and Ventura are the latest to join the growing group of counties which have sought and received variances from the California Department of Public Health to proceed into California’s Advanced Stage 2 reopening.  The variances generally authorize restaurants to re-open for dining-in and retailers to re-open for in-store shopping across the eight counties.  A few of the counties’ Orders also permit additional types of businesses to reopen.

California has begun to reopen some non-essential businesses.  Many counties, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo (just to name some), have issued orders to enter the State’s initial Phase 2 plan.  In addition, Santa Clara County has issued an order that will be effective on May 22, 2020 that also allows some non-essential businesses to reopen.  In the initial Phase 2 plan, certain specified businesses may open, such as retail businesses (for curbside pickup only), subject to compliance with state and local directives for safety.  This often includes the implementation of written protocols, which vary jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction and industry-to-industry.  Over the weekend, the CDC also issued industry-specific guidelines for consideration in the reopening process, which may be accessed here at Appendix F. 

Last week, officials for the County of Los Angeles and the City and County of San Francisco announced that they will be allowing certain businesses to resume operations.