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Depending on the reasons for the cosmetic surgery, you may be required to grant the time off and hold the employee's job. To make that determination, you must consider which laws might apply.
If you are covered under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and/or the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the employee meets the eligibility tests, you may need to provide family and medical leave.
Some purely elective cosmetic procedures, such as most plastic surgeries and acne treatments, are not protected by family and medical leave laws, so you would not be required to grant time off or hold the employee's job.
On the other hand, both state and federal family and medical leave laws consider certain types of cosmetic surgery as "serious health conditions" that would allow up to 12 weeks of leave.
Family and medical leave would cover cosmetic surgery when:
Even if family and medical leave laws do not apply, consider whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) might come into play. Both require an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability unless undue hardship would result.
Consider whether the employee could use any mandatory paid sick leave accrued under the California Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act. An employee can take time off for a health condition, and employers generally can't ask for more information beyond what the employee volunteers.
Even though the underlying reason for the family and medical leave might seem to be a matter of employee choice rather than necessity, employers should be especially careful in evaluating an employee's request for leave. The employee's own health care provider, not the employer, should make the choice as to whether or not the procedure qualifies under the FMLA/CFRA. Failure to recognize the potential that an absence may be covered by family and medical leave laws can result in financial liability if an employer takes adverse action because of the employee's absence.
Read more in CFRA and FMLA Qualifying Reasons and Permissible Use of Paid Sick Leave in the HR Library.