5 Days of Bereavement Leave in 2023

California employers with five or more employees will likely need to update their bereavement policy in their employee handbook for 2023. That’s because a new law took effect on January 1, 2023 (AB 1949) which allows employees to take up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. A family member is defined as a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild.

According to AB 1949, an employee may also use other available paid time off, such as vacation pay, personal leave, sick leave, or compensatory time off during their leave. Employers may choose to provide more benefits than the law requires, and some of our members already provide bereavement time off with full or partial pay.

A few caveats with this new leave law include:

• Bereavement leave must be completed within three months of the death of the family member.
• Bereavement leave can be used intermittently (for example, two days can be taken off to handle immediate affairs, and then perhaps a month later, three more days are taken to attend a celebration of life service).
• Bereavement leave is only available to employees who have worked for the employer for at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the leave.
• We encourage employers to request appropriate documentation consistently. Employees have 30 days from the first date of leave to provide requested documentation, such as an obituary.
• Employers should update their employee handbooks now. (This article should have all the language you need, but call us if you need help with your handbook update!)

To purchase a new 2023 Do-It-Yourself Employee Handbook, for this update and other new employment law changes, visit our store.