California Expands Leave Protections

12.22.2025

This past year, Governor Newsom signed new bills impacting leave rights and protections for California employees. The following summarizes the new leave-related employment laws that California employers should be aware of.

AB 406 (Workplace Protections for Victims of Violence):

AB 406 expands upon AB 2499 (Schiavo, Chapter 967, Statutes of 2024), which provides leave for victims of qualifying acts of violence for specified reasons and requires employers to provide accommodations to victims of qualifying actions of violence (as reported in our previous Alert). Specifically, effective January 1, 2026, AB 406 adds Government Code section 12945.8(a)(4), which prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is a victim or is a family member of a victim for taking time off work to attend any judicial proceedings related to that crime, including, any delinquency proceedings, a post-arrest release decision, plea, sentencing, postconviction release decision, or any proceeding where a right of that victim is an issue. For this section only, AB 406 creates a new definition of “victim” which includes being subjected to one of 14 different crimes enumerated by Government Code section 12945.8(j)(8)(c), including violent felonies and serious felonies as defined in the California Penal Code.

AB 406 also expands Labor Code section 246.5, part of the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (“Act”). The Act grants paid sick leave to California employees who are not covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement which expressly provides for the wages, hours, and working conditions of employees, and expressly provides for paid sick days or a paid leave of paid time off policy that permits the use of sick days for those employees. Effective October 1, 2025, the Act allows employees to use paid sick leave to attend judicial proceedings delineated in Government Code section 12945.8(a)(4) related to a qualifying act of violence.

Additionally, effective October 1, 2025, AB 406 restores specified Labor Code sections that were deleted by AB 2499 regarding leave rights and protections for employees who are victims of a qualifying act of violence, or who have a family member who is a victim of a qualifying act of violence, including Labor Code sections 230 and 231.1. These reinstated Labor Code sections only apply to alleged actions or inactions occurring on or before December 31, 2024, and do not apply to public school district employers. The bill clarifies that pending cases arising from employer violations of the above rights occurring on or before December 31, 2024, are still valid and within the jurisdiction of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”), the department responsible for enforcing the California Labor Code. AB 406 transfers jurisdiction to the California Civil Rights Department (“CRD”), the department enforcing the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”), for such cases arising from employer violations on or after January 1, 2025. The bill would keep the Labor Code sections in effect until January 1, 2035.

Employers will need to update their leave policies to allow qualifying victims and family members to take time off to attend judicial proceedings related to the crime. Additionally, the CRD will likely need to update its AB 2499 Notice provided in July 2025, which provided the reasons for which an employee could take leave related to a qualifying act of violence (as reported in our previous Alert).

AB 642 (Expansion of School Employee Catastrophic Leave to Charter Schools):

AB 642 was passed by the Governor on July 30, 2025, and took effect immediately. AB 642 amends section 44043.5 of the Education Code, governing catastrophic illness leave, and adds section 44043.6 to the Education Code. Current law authorizes the governing board of a school district or county office of education (“COE”) to establish a catastrophic leave program to permit employees of that school district or COE, if specified conditions are met, to donate eligible leave credits to an employee when that employee or a member of their family suffers from a catastrophic illness or injury. This bill extends the above-described authorization to the governing body of a charter school. Additionally, AB 642 authorizes the governing board or body of a school district, COE, or charter school to permit employees to donate eligible leave credits to an employee impacted by a state of emergency that has been proclaimed by the Governor. Passed as an urgency measure, AB 642 was implemented immediately to address the recent California fires.

SB 590 (Paid Family Leave Expansion for Designated Persons):

Effective July 1, 2028, SB 590 expands employees’ eligibility to receive state Paid Family Leave (“PFL”) benefits to those who are taking time off work to care for a seriously ill “designated person.” SB 590 only applies to employers who pay into state disability insurance benefits for PFL. The law defines a “designated person” as “any care recipient related by blood or whose association with the individual is the equivalent of a family relationship.” An employee who wishes to receive PFL benefits from the Employment Development Department to care for a designated person will be required to identify the designated person, and under penalty of perjury attest to how they are either related by blood to the designated person or how their association with the designated person is the equivalent of a family relationship. This law follows in the footsteps of AB 1041 (2022), which added “designated person” to the list of individuals for whom an employee could take paid sick leave and leave under the California Family Rights Act.

If you have any questions concerning this alert or how to implement the requirements, please contact the authors of this alert or your usual counsel.

Thank you to law clerk Heily Acicon for her extensive work in preparation of this Alert.