©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 2023 Cal-Peculiarities | 35 the percentage of income replacement by PFL and the state income cap will affect the supplemental amount that San Francisco employers must pay. 2.5 Accommodation of Addicts and Individuals Who Cannot Read Employers of 25 or more employees must provide a “reasonable accommodation” (e.g., an unpaid leave) for employees who wish to participate in alcohol or drug rehabilitation programs or adult literacy programs,64 and must take reasonable steps to safeguard the privacy of the employee who has enrolled in a rehabilitation program.65 2.6 Time Off for Court Appearances (Jury Duty, Witness Leave, etc.) California employers must grant unpaid leave to, and must not discriminate against, employees who (1) are summoned for jury duty or for a court appearance as a witness, (2) appear in court to seek relief as a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault, or (3) are victims of certain felonies or are closely related to such victims.66 Generally a condition of leave is giving reasonable notice to the employer. 2.6.1 Jury duty California law does not prohibit an employer from requiring that employees on jury duty report to work when not called to serve on a jury. Although employers who provide paid jury duty typically limit the pay to two weeks, both federal and California law generally require, as a condition of exempt status, that exempt employees receive a salary of a fixed amount per week regardless of the amount worked that week, so that a partial-week jury leave may amount, as a practical matter, to fully paid leave for exempt employees. 2.6.2 Victim-related court appearances California employers must not discharge, discriminate, or retaliate against an employee who takes time off, after giving reasonable advance notice (where feasible), to appear at any proceeding involving the right of a victim of any of certain crimes.67 The law specifies that the information needed to certify the absence can include a police report, court order, or medical documentation.68 A “victim” protected under this law includes the employee or the employee’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, or guardian.69 2.7 Crime Victim Accommodation California has created rights for individuals who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. These individuals may not only need to miss work for victim-related judicial proceedings (see § 2.6.2), but may also have special safety and medical needs that employers must consider (see §§ 2.7.1, 2.7.2). As of 2021, additional victims—those who have experienced other crimes or abuses “that caused physical injury or that caused mental injury and a threat of physical injury,” and those “whose immediate family member is deceased as the direct result of the crime”—are entitled to take time off from work to obtain relief to help ensure the health, safety, or welfare of the victim or the victim’s child.70 Under California law, an “immediate family member” is a child, a parent, a spouse, a sibling, or anyone else whose relationship is the equivalent of the family relationship listed above (i.e., step-parents, half-siblings, foster or adopted children, etc.).71 2.7.1 Safety accommodations California employers must engage in an interactive process and provide reasonable accommodations—absent undue hardship—for employees victimized by domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking who have disclosed that status and who have requested a safety accommodation while at work. Reasonable accommodations may
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