A proposal to expand the California Family Rights Act to employers with five or more employees could be "particularly devastating" to dental practices, according to the California Dental Association.
Senate Bill 1383 proposes to reduce the employee threshold of the CFRA, which provides employees up to 12 work weeks of protected unpaid leave. This runs concurrent with leave provided under the federal Family Medical Leave Act and in addition to California's Pregnancy Disability Leave and Paid Family Leave.
Currently, CFRA only applies to employers with 50 or more staff members. The CDA opposes the new bill because of the anticipated major and long-term effect on dental practices, with about 80 percent of California dental practices employing 10 or fewer workers.
"In a worst-case scenario, a diminished dental workforce will not be able to meet demand once patients across the state who have delayed their care during the pandemic begin to resume that care," said Stephanie Sandretti, DDS, CDA Government Affairs Council chair.
The Assembly has until Aug. 31 to pass the current or amended bill and send it to the governor. If approved, the bill would take effect Jan. 1, 2021.
CDA amendments would raise the employee threshold to 20 workers and delay implementation by one or two years.