Are we required to provide members of the same family with leave at the same time to care for an ill parent? What happens if the parent dies?

Not all employers are required to provide a leave of absence for the care of a parent. The answer to this question depends on what laws, policies and practices apply.

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) would require a leave of absence for parental care provided that the employer is covered by these laws and each of the employees meets the eligibility requirements for CFRA/FMLA leave.

Although it is unusual for an employer to have multiple requests from family members for CFRA/FMLA leave at the same time, each employee has the right to take a separate CFRA/FMLA leave for up to 12 weeks within a 12-month period.

If each employee provides a certification, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the employees from taking leave all at the same time. Although it may be hard to manage, an employer would not be able to deny leave.

Under the FMLA only, if the employees are husband and wife, the employer could limit the amount of leave to a combined total of 12 weeks. Although the total time provided for employees for leave may be limited, employees may request leave only for the care of their parent and not for the care of their spouse's parent.

The CFRA doesn't allow employers to limit the amount of time spouse employees can take to a combined total of 12 weeks. Each employee is entitled to take the full amount of leave under the CFRA. Unlike the FMLA, the CFRA also allows employees to take leave to care for a parent-in-law.

Because both CFRA and FMLA are limited to a serious health condition, if the parent dies, the need for the leave ends, at which point the employee may be eligible for bereavement leave under California’s mandatory bereavement leave law, discussed below.

In some cases, if an employee is distraught over the death, the employee may qualify for an CFRA/FMLA serious health condition leave for themselves. Although this may not be typical, an employer should consider this and provide the certification form to an employee if that employee says they are unable to return to work.

Read more about CFRA and FMLA Qualifying Reasons in the HR Library.

Eligible employees can also use accrued paid sick leave under California's mandatory paid sick leave law to care for a parent or parent in-law.

Read more about California's mandatory paid sick leave law in the HR Library.

If an employer is not covered by CFRA/FMLA, it would look to its own policies and practices. If the employer has no policy or practice, it would be up to the employer to decide to grant or deny a leave.

Some companies do have family leave or personal leave that may apply in this situation. In that case, the employer would go by the terms of its policy in approving the leaves.

It is not unusual for personal leaves to be discretionary based on the operating needs of the employer and for that reason, an employer may not find it possible to grant all leaves at the same time.

If a company had granted time off to another employee to care for a family member who is ill, then that may become the employer's practice, and the employer may be discriminating by not providing the leave to other employees.

When there is no CFRA/FMLA protection, the law does not mandate job protection for up to 12 weeks or continued medical insurance coverage; the employer may determine how long to provide a leave and let the employee know what is going to happen with insurance.

If the parent dies, the employees would likely be eligible for bereavement leave under state law. California law requires employers to provide up to five days of bereavement leave when an eligible employee experiences the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner or parent-in-law, as those terms are defined under the CFRA. The employee must have been employed for 30 days to be eligible for this leave.

Bereavement leave does not have to be taken on consecutive days, but the leave must be taken within three months of the family member’s death.

Read more about Bereavement Leave in the HR Library.