California Enacts Military Spouse Leave Law (Effective Immediately)
Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed California Assembly Bill (AB) 392 into law. That bill creates a new leave of absence right for spouses of military personnel while those personnel are on a leave of absence from deployment.
Specifically, the military spouse law provides that:
- Employers with 25 or more employees in the United States to allow eligible employees to take up to 10-days off from work, on an unpaid basis, when his/her spouse is on leave from deployment during a period of military conflict;
- Eligible employees are defined as employees who work at least an average of 20 hours per week and whose spouse is a member of the United States Armed Forces, National Guard, or Army Reserve on active duty in an area of military conflict;
- Employees must provide notice to the employer within 2 business days of receiving official notice that his/her spouse will be on a leave from deployment.