To further our commitment to supporting staff members as whole persons, Sustainable Economies Law Center allows staff members to take up to 40 weeks paid leave in one 12-month period to do either of the following:

• Recover, care for, and/or bond with a new child

• Care for an ill family member.

• anticipate the arrival of a child by birth or placement in connection with adoption or foster care, and/or

• recover, care for, and/or bond with a child by birth or placement in connection with adoption or foster care.

Notes:

• Staff must use state programs like California Short Term Disability Funding and Paid Family Leave Funding, when available.

• With regard to the definition for "ill," we plan to follow the CA paid family leave law's definition of "serious health condition," which reads:

  • "serious health condition" means means "an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential health care facility, or continuing treatment or continuing supervision by a health care provider, as defined in Section 12945.2 of the Government Code."

• With regard to the definition of "family member," we plan to use part of the definition the federal government uses in its leave policies for government personnel, 5 CFR §630.201(b), specifically the part that reads:

  • "family member" means "any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship."

• A child is defined, per Cal. Gov’t Code Section 12945.2(b)(1), as a “biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, a child of a domestic partner, or a person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis.” Note that parental leave is available only for a child who arrives by birth or placement in connection with adoption or foster care.

• Staff members may begin paid parental leave up to 4 weeks before the anticipated arrival of a child. The 4 weeks prior to anticipated arrival is part of (not in addition to) the 40 total allowable weeks.

• A staff member may choose to return to work during the 40 total allowable weeks of paid family leave. Should a staff member return during that period, they may go down from full time (or from existing part time hours) to part time (with no minimum hours per week required), and be paid full time at their pay level prior to parental leave. “Pay level prior to parental leave” means pay level prior to parental leave plus any additions to pay level prior to parental leave based on the addition of a child (e.g. childcare benefits, pay increase based on number of children). The staff member may remain part time at full pay until the end of the 12-month period triggered by the first day parental leave is taken.

• Staff members are expected to come back from paid family leave to work at the Law Center for at least a year.

• • See here for how to implement parental leave policy