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Employers and employees both must follow notice requirements relating to PDL. State law requires employers to post a specific notice for employees explaining their right to leave for pregnancy disability. Employees must also give appropriate notice of the need for PDL to their employers.
This topic contains the following information:
Covered employers must post the “Your Rights and Obligations As A Pregnant Employee” notice (PDL notice) from the California Civil Rights Department (CRD).1 The notice is available in English or Spanish.
The PDL notice includes information about:
You must post the PDL notice in conspicuous places on your premises, and it must contain fully legible text that is large enough to be easily read. You may post the notice electronically as long as you post it electronically in a conspicuous place or places where employees would tend to view it in the workplace.2
Employers with five or more employees are also covered by the CFRA, which has separate posting requirements. Additionally, employers with 50 or more employees are covered by the FMLA and must also comply with its posting requirements. For more information on those requirements, see Family and Medical Leave.
In addition to the required notification, California’s CRD provides informational brochures that you can distribute to employees. No legal requirement exists to distribute the CRD brochures.
If 10 percent or more of your workforce at any location speaks a language other than English, you must translate the PDL notice into every language that is spoken by at least 10 percent of the workforce.4
You must also make a reasonable effort to give either verbal or written notice in the appropriate language to any employee who you know is not proficient in English, and for whom written notice was not previously given in the employee’s primary language once you know the employee is pregnant.
If you publish an employee handbook that describes other types of reasonable accommodation, transfers or temporary disability leaves, you are required to include a description of PDL, reasonable accommodation and transfers.5 Alternatively, you may give employees a copy of the PDL notice at least annually. The annual notice may be provided electronically.
An employee must provide at least verbal notice of the need for PDL, reasonable accommodation or transfer, and the anticipated timing and duration of the leave, reasonable accommodation or transfer.
If the need is foreseeable, an employee must provide at least 30 days' advance notice before the leave, reasonable accommodation or transfer will begin. The employee must consult with you and make a reasonable effort to schedule any planned medical treatment or supervision to minimize disruption to your operations. However, any scheduling is subject to approval by the employee's health care provider 6
If 30 days' advance notice is not possible due to a lack of knowledge of when the leave, reasonable accommodation or transfer will begin, a change in circumstances or a medical emergency, or other good cause, the employee must notify you as soon as possible.
You cannot deny PDL, reasonable accommodation or transfer that is an emergency or is otherwise unforeseeable on the basis that the employee did not provide advance notice.
You must respond to a request for PDL, reasonable accommodation or transfer as soon as possible, but no later than 10 calendar days after receiving the request.7 You should attempt to respond to the leave request before the date the leave is due to begin. Once the request for leave has been approved, it is retroactive to the first day of the leave.
If the pregnancy leave would also qualify as a leave under the FMLA, you must respond no later than five (5) business days after the request, unless “extenuating circumstances” exist.8
You can require medical certification as a condition of granting PDL, reasonable accommodation or transfer. If you do, you must advise the employee of all the following:
If you have an employer-required medical certification form, you must provide that form to the employee.
A medical certification for a reasonable accommodation or transfer request is sufficient if it contains all of the following information:9
A medical certification is sufficient for PDL if it states:10
You may not request additional information other than that listed above and must accept a medical certification if it meets the requirements stated — even if the certification is on a different form than the one you provided to the employee. If additional time is requested beyond the date of the original medical certification, you may require recertification of the need for additional time.
If your company’s sick or other medical leave certification requirements are less stringent than the medical certification requirements for PDL, transfer and reasonable accommodation, and you or the employee choose to substitute sick, vacation, personal or family leave for unpaid pregnancy disability leave, you may impose only the less stringent leave certification requirements.
If you require medical certification, you must request it from the employee within two business days after the employee requests PDL, reasonable accommodation or transfer. If the need for PDL is not foreseeable, you must request the medical certification within two business days after the leave begins.
If the leave is foreseeable — and at least 30 days' notice has been provided — the employee must provide the medical certification before the leave begins, unless it is not practicable. If not practicable, the employee must provide the medical certification within the deadline you set, which must be at least 15 calendar days after you make the request. If this is not practicable under the circumstances, and the employee has made a diligent, good faith effort to provide the medical certification, you should provide additional time to the employee.
Additionally, if any medical certification provided by the employee is incomplete or inadequate, you must advise the employee of such and give the employee a reasonable amount of time to provide sufficient medical certification.
If a leave, transfer or reasonable accommodation is foreseeable and the employee has not provided sufficient medical certification, you may delay granting the employee’s request until such time as the certification is provided.
You can use the Certification of Health Care Provider For Pregnancy Disability Leave, Transfer Or Reasonable Accommodation form to obtain certification of a need for PDL, transfer or reasonable accommodation.
Any medical information you receive about an employee is protected by confidentiality laws and should be retained in a confidential medical file separate from the employee’s regular personnel file. For more information, see Keeping Medical Information Private.
The pregnancy disability leave law defines a health care provider as a medical or osteopathic doctor, physician, or surgeon, licensed in California or in another state or country, who directly treats or supervises the treatment of the employee's pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition.11
Other health care providers who can provide medical certification include the following persons when directly treating or supervising the treatment of the employee’s pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition:
You must provide written notice to an employee at the beginning of PDL to clarify that the employee’s status has changed and the employee is on a leave of absence.12
You can use the Notice to Employee as to Change in Relationship form to do so.
1. 2 CCR sec. 11049
2. 2 CCR sec. 11049(d)
3. 2 CCR sec. 11049(d)(2)
4. 2 CCR sec. 11049(d)(4)
5. 2 CCR sec. 11049(d)(3)
6. 2 CCR sec. 11050(a)
7. 2 CCR sec. 11050(a)(5)
8. 9. 29 CFR sec. 825.300(b)(1)
9. 2 CCR sec. 11050 (b)(6)
10. 2 CCR sec. 11050 (b)(7)
11. 2 CCR sec. 11035(n)
12. UI Code sec. 1089; 22 CCR sec. 1089-1