Employers must ensure that employee handbooks are accurate and up-to-date, which means accurately reflecting the current state of California employment law—including recent FEHA changes that have gone into effect.
Handbooks have two purposes. The first is to inform employees about the rules and the policies of the company. The second is to protect the company and lay out the policies that it intends to follow. This typically includes things that relate to legal compliance, such as an equal employment opportunity policy, or an anti-harassment policy. The recent FEHA changes fall into the second category.
What do FEHA changes mean for your 2013 employee handbook update?
The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) in California broadly sets out the groups of people that are protected against discrimination. These categories should be included in every employee handbook as areas that the company will not discriminate against.
“AB 1964 amended FEHA to include a couple new categories. The first one is religious dress and grooming practices.” Joel M. Van Parys told us in a recent CER webinar. As such, California employers should update their employee handbooks accordingly.
Employers should modify the equal protection policy in their employee handbook to include this category as one that will not be discriminated against. If you also have an anti-harassment policy and list the categories there, be sure to update that list as well. Consider reiterating that any employee who feels they have been infringed upon should contact human resources.
If you have a dress code and/or grooming policy, also modify it to state that policy is not intended to interfere with religious dress and grooming practices. Also note that employees should discuss any accommodation needs with HR.
A second FEHA change was to the definition of what is included in the category of sex discrimination. AB 2386 amended FEHA’s definition to include breastfeeding and related medical conditions. This means that someone cannot be discriminated against on the basis of breastfeeding or other related medical conditions.
California employers should now include “breastfeeding and related medical conditions” in the list of protected categories in the equal protection policy and update their employee handbooks accordingly.
The above information is excerpted from the webinar “New Year, New Laws, New California Employee Handbook: What to Change and What to Keep in 2013.” To register for a future webinar, visit CER webinars.
Joel M. Van Parys is an attorney in the Sacramento office of Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP. He represents management in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including defense of wage and hour claims, employee misclassifications, wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment, retaliation and unfair competition claims.