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Yes, under California’s paid sick leave (PSL) law and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), an employee can take leave to care for a “designated person,” although each law has different definitions for “designated person.”
Under PSL, a “designated person” is defined as “a person identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days.”
This means an employee’s designated person can essentially be anyone of their choosing; however, an employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for PSL, whether that is measured by calendar year, the employee’s hire date anniversary or some other method to measure the 12-month period for PSL.
PSL can be used for the diagnosis, care, treatment of an existing health condition, or preventive care for an employee or an employee’s family member, which now may include someone like your employee’s neighbor if they choose to designate them as such.
Also keep in mind that several California cities have local paid sick leave ordinances. Employers must comply with both state and local laws, and where they differ, employers must apply whichever one is more beneficial to the employee.
For CFRA leave, a “designated person” means “any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.” Like with PSL, employers also can limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period. That 12-month period, however, depends on how you choose to calculate it under your policy for administering leave.
Assuming an employee is eligible and indicated the need to care for a qualifying member (which now may include a “designated person” as defined above), a medical certification is required to designate the leave properly as CFRA.
Additionally, if you also are covered under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the employee also is FMLA-eligible, remember that the FMLA will not run at the same time as this type of CFRA leave because a designated person is not a qualifying family member for purposes of FMLA.
Employers should include designated person as a qualifying family member in their PSL and CFRA policies. The person an employee designates for PSL can be different from the person they designate for CFRA.
Read more about Permissible PSL Usage and CFRA and FMLA Qualifying Reasons in the HR Library.