An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 8 – Leaves And Absences

an accrual cap on sick leave of 72 hours. Employers can frontload sick leave as an alternative to the accrual method at a rate not less than the accrual cap, which for employers with more than 25 employees is 72 hours. Moreover, employers may not limit the amount of accrued sick leave employees may use during the year. Employers must display a notice regarding the ordinance provided by the City each year in English and Spanish and in any other language spoken by at least five percent of workers. 1068 The City of Berkeley’s paid sick leave ordinance took effect on October 1, 2017. The local ordinance provides that employees working within the city must receive 1 hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked, sick leave must be carried over to the next year, but that small businesses with 25 or fewer employees may cap sick leave accrual at 48 hours, and larger businesses with more than 25 employees cannot cap accrual at less than 72 hours. Moreover, employers with more than 25 employees may not limit the amount of accrued sick leave employees may use during the year. Similar to San Francisco’s ordinance, an employee can use sick leave to care for a designated person if the employee does not have a spouse or registered domestic partner. Also similar to the San Francisco ordinance, the Berkeley ordinance does permit front-loading of sick leave as an alternative to the accrual method, but provides that employees must be able to accrue additional sick leave after the front-loading provided at the start of the year has been earned with the accrual at one hour for every 30 worked. Employers are also required to post a notice of the ordinance published by the City in any language spoken by at least 5% of the employees at the workplace or job site. 1069 The City of Oakland’s paid sick leave ordinance has been in effect since March of 2015. The City’s ordinance provides one hour of sick leave for 30 hours worked within the city, and provides that sick leave must be carried over to the next year, but an employer with 10 or more employees cannot cap the accrual at less than 72 hours. Employers cannot limit how much accrued sick leave an employee can use in a year. The ordinance is silent as to whether or not paid sick leave can be front-loaded as an alternative to the accrual method. Similar to San Francisco’s ordinance, an employee can use sick leave to care for a designated person if the employee does not have a spouse or registered domestic partner. Employers are required to post notices of the ordinance in all languages spoken by a more than 10% of the employees. 1070 B. P ROTECTED S ICK L EAVE On January 1, 2016, SB 579 modified Labor Code section 233 to match the sick leave uses provided in the Paid Sick Leave Law. Prior to 2016, Labor Code section 233 protected one-half of an employee’s annual accrued sick leave to be used to care for a parent, child, spouse or registered domestic partner. This was frequently known as the “Kin Care Law”. SB 579 expanded Labor Code section 233 to permit an employee to use up to one-half of the employee’s accrued and available annual sick leave for the same reasons as the Paid Sick Leave Law:  The diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee;

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