California Vacation Law Update 2025: Changes to Paid Leave, PFL Use, and Workplace Policies

California’s 2025 vacation law update adds new protections for employees, impacting paid leave, workplace meetings, and contractor agreements. Employers must adjust to expanded worker rights, anti-discrimination rules, and stricter compliance requirements taking effect January 1, 2025.

By Douglas Wade, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. A quick look

2. Time off for juries, courts, and victims

3. Paid Family Leave

4. Ban on Captive Audiences

5. Workers’ Compensation Rights

6. Whistleblower Posting

7. Protections for Freelancers

8. Discrimination Based on Driver’s License

9. Intersectionality Anti-Bias

10. Child Labor

A quick look

California has signed a number of new laws.
Increased employee safeguards: The new California vacation law is strengthening protections for workers. For example, their ability to take time off for serving on a jury, court appearances, and helping family members who have been harmed by crimes.
Amendments include making it illegal for companies to demand that workers take paid time off before they are eligible for the state’s Paid Family Leave program (according to the new California vacation law)
Meetings at work: In an effort to shield workers from force and intimidation, employers are no longer allowed to arrange required meetings to discuss political or religious issues.
Information about workers’ rights: Employers are required to give more precise information regarding workers’ compensation rights, such as the entitlement to legal counsel.
Contracts for freelancers: To safeguard independent contractors, new rules are being implemented that guarantee prompt payment and official written agreements.

Additional pertinent developments prior to the January 2025 modifications taking effect are as follows:

A new banner mandated by A.B. 2299 was released by California on January 1, 2025. A summary of employee rights and obligations under whistleblower law is included on the poster.
Concerning paid sick leave mandated as per the California vacation law, the California Department of Industrial Relations released new frequently asked questions.
Considering the PAGA (Private Attorneys General Act), which permits workers to bring a lawsuit against their company on behalf of the government for violations of the state Labor Code, the state Department of Industrial Relations released frequently asked questions. Changes that went into effect in 2024 are included in the advice.

New regulatory requirements pertaining to a variety of topics, such as required job advertisements, freelancer agreements, leave, child labor, discrimination, and retaliation, have been encountered by employers in California. Here is a summary of the new legislation that goes into force on 1^st January 2025.

Time off for juries, courts, and victims

With effect from 1^st January 2025, AB 2499 of the California vacation law will allow employees to use protected time off to help family members who have been victims of specific crimes, as well as to use state-paid sick days for such purposes. It also broadens the list of offenses for which employees are eligible to take time off. In accordance with the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, the measure also redefines the jury, court, & victim time off arrangements for employees as legal employment practices that fall under the Civil Rights Department’s enforcement purview.

Paid Family Leave

Employers are forbidden under AB 2123 of the California vacation law, which goes into effect on 1^st January 2025, from compelling workers to take paid time off prior to using California’s PFL (Paid Family Leave). People who take time off to care for a spouse, parent, child, or domestic partner who is seriously ill, connect with a new young child, or support military family members who are on active duty can get benefits through PFL, a state-run program.

Prior to granting PFL benefits, businesses had the authority to order workers to take as much as two weeks of accumulated vacation time. This rule will no longer be applicable as of 1^st January 2025.

Ban on Captive Audiences

The California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act, SB 399, which goes into effect on January 1, 2025, forbids companies from hosting “captive audience” gatherings, which are required sessions sponsored by the employer and that cover political or religious topics, including unionization. The recently enacted law:

States that if an employee refuses to attend a meeting organized by the employer or if the employee refuses to take part in, receive, or pay attention to any interaction with the company or its agents or delegates that express the employer’s opinion on religious and political issues, the employer cannot subject the employee to termination, prejudice, retaliation, or any additional negative action.
Mandates that a worker who declines to go to such a meeting nonetheless get compensation;
Determines that “political affairs” include issues pertaining to political office elections, political parties, laws, regulations, and the choice to join or support a political party, labor, or political organization;
Characterizes “religious affairs” as those that have to do with religious practice and affiliation, as well as the choice of joining or supporting any religious association or organization;
Imposes a $500 civil penalty per employee for each infraction;
Gives the Labor Commissioner the authority to enforce the bill’s terms; permits any employee to file a petition for injunction relief and file an action in civil court for damages, such as punitive penalties; and
Explains that the legislation does not: (i) prohibit an employer from telling its workers whatever information that the business is legally required to share or that is required for workers to carry out their job responsibilities; or (ii) prohibit an employer that demands workers to complete training in order to ensure compliance with the company’s legal obligations, such as those under health and safety at work and civil rights laws.

Workers’ Compensation Rights

According to AB 1870, which goes into effect on 1^st January 2025, California companies must display workers’ compensation benefits and rights in notices. It should state that an injured worker has the right to seek legal advice and that, in most cases, the victim’s compensation award will cover solicitors’ fees.

Whistleblower Posting

With effect from 1^st January 2025, AB 2299 mandates that the Labor Commissioner create a model list of the rights and obligations of employees according to the whistleblower laws. It further stipulates that an employer will be considered to have complied with the criteria if the proposed list is posted.

Protections for Freelancers

Contracts with freelancers will be subject to additional regulations as of 1^st January 2025, under the SB 988 (Freelance Worker Protection Act). A “freelance worker” is any individual or group of individuals, whether or not they are incorporated or use a trade name, who are hired and retained as a legitimate freelancer by a hiring party to perform professional services in return for a sum of USD 250 or more, either alone or when combined with all service agreements made between the same employing party & independent contractor in the last 120 days. The recently enacted law:

Mandates that the hiring entity pay a freelancer the amount agreed upon in a professional services agreement on or before the specified date in the contract, or, in the absence of a date, no later than thirty days following the conclusion of services;
Mandates that an agreement between an employing party and a freelancer be in writing, contain specific components, and that the hiring party keep a copy of the contract for a minimum of four years.
Forbids the hiring party from treating a freelancer unfairly or negatively because they are using their legal rights; and
Permits a civil action to be brought by a public prosecutor, the Labor Commissioner, or an irate freelancer. Depending on the infraction, the successful plaintiff may be entitled to a variety of costs and damages.

Discrimination Based on Driver’s License

According to SB 1100, which goes into effect on 1^st January 2025, it is illegal for employers to declare in a job posting, job application, or any other document that a candidate needs a driver’s license until both of the following requirements are met.

The employer has a reasonable expectation that one of the duties of the employment will be driving; and
An alternative mode of transportation wouldn’t be considered equivalent in terms of travel time or expense to the employer, according to the employer’s reasonable belief. Using a taxi service, paying taxes, carpooling, riding a bike, and walking are examples of “alternative forms of transportation.”

Intersectionality Anti-Bias

SB 1137 amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which takes effect on 1^st January 2025. It makes it clear that discrimination is prohibited not only on the basis of somebody’s protected traits but additionally on the basis of intersectionality, or the intersection of more than one protected trait. The legislature of California states that “intersectionality is an interpretive paradigm that sets forth that multiple kinds of inequality function together, aggravate each other, and may end up in intensified forms of bias and damage.”

Child Labor

With effect from 1^st January 2025, California firms that have willingly submitted to a “social compliance audit” to ascertain whether child labor is a part of their business must prominently display a link to a report outlining the results on their website. A “social compliance audit” is a non-governmental, voluntary examination or assessment of a company’s business operations or procedures to determine whether they comply with federal or state labor laws, including those pertaining to child labor, wage and hour, and health and safety. The report must have:

The year, month, day, and time of the audit, and whether the audit was carried out during the day or at night
Whether the employer consented to the use of child labor or was not part of it
A copy of the employer’s written child-employment rules and procedures, if any
Whether the job conditions that the employer subjected kids to were dangerous or harmful to their development and physical and mental health
Whether kids work for their employers during the day or after traditional school hours, and
A statement that the auditing firm is not a governmental organization and cannot be allowed to certify compliance with labor laws in the federal and state jurisdictions, and those laws, the provisions of which apply in regard to safety and health.

To prepare themselves for changes that will come in 2025, California employers are encouraged to look through the policies, procedures, and training they have and modify them.

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California Vacation Law Update 2025: Changes to Paid Leave, PFL Use, and Workplace Policies

A quick look

Time off for juries, courts, and victims

Paid Family Leave

Ban on Captive Audiences

Workers’ Compensation Rights

Whistleblower Posting

Protections for Freelancers

Discrimination Based on Driver’s License

Intersectionality Anti-Bias

Child Labor

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