Are employees entitled to time off for emergency duty and training?

You must provide leaves of absence for certain employees required to perform emergency duty, but you're not required to compensate the employee during that time off.

An employee denied leave under this law is entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits.

The law applies to volunteer firefighters, reserve peace officers and emergency rescue personnel.

Emergency rescue personnel eligible for time off include:

• An officer, employee or member of a fire department, fire protection or firefighting agency of the federal government, California state government, local government, special district or other public or municipal corporation or political subdivision of California;
• An officer of a sheriff’s department, police department or private fire department; and
• A disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by the state.

The person can be a volunteer, partly paid or fully paid while they provide emergency services.

If you employ 50 or more employees, you must allow an employee who is a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer or emergency rescue personnel to take up to a total of 14 calendar days per year to engage in fire, law enforcement or emergency rescue training.

Read more about Volunteer Civil Service Leave in the HR Library.