Vacation time and sick time in California

Sheila2008

We are a small business of 7 employee's and to my understanding we do not have to offer any time off at all, but my boss does.  We have an employee who's wife had a baby last month.  He originally took 3 days vacation time to be with her at the hospital.  He asked earlier today if he could change the time off from vacation to sick time?  I told him that he couldn't because neither him, baby or wife were sick.  I don't know if a wife having a baby in the hospital and him being there with her constitutes him taking care of her or not.  I want to be fair, but I also don't want to have sick time abused.  Am I within the law when offering sick time? 

Our ee handbook states:

"Employees may use up to one-half of their yearly sick leave accrual to attend to a child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, or domestic partner’s child who is ill.  Leave for this purpose may not be taken until it has actually accrued."

 

efeldman

You are correct.  The wife may use sick days upon giving birth because it is she who is in the hospital and has just undergone a major health event, and sick days need to be exhausted before STD kicks in.  I would not count her husband/partner as eligible for sick time in this circumstance, however, as she is not technically sick for the purposes of sick leave.

pammcconnell

I would referance Labor Code Section 233 for specifics, becuase I have seen referance to applying this as you would FMLA in regard to illnesses. You can restrict the use of sick time for a spouse, child, parent etc to half of the employees sick time allotment.  I would read the code and if there is still a question, I would give your attorney a quick call.  California courts tend to side with employees on this sort of stuff. 

robertmiller

based on your description of your employer, fmla nor cfra are open to you because both require you to have at least 50 employees, further california labor code 233  refers to accurred sick time not vacation time...relatedly, there is no wording in the staute that allows you to convert sick time to vacation or vice versa.......solutionwise, I would allow the ee to take time off using whatever aviable time he has available....if that is within your rules.