This bill amends the Family Leave Act to gradually extend reinstatement rights to employees of smaller employers, reducing the employee threshold from 30 to five over a two-year period. Initially, the threshold will be set at 20 employees upon the bill's effective date, then decrease to 10 employees one year later, and finally to five employees two years after the effective date. This change ensures that employees who take family temporary disability leave (FLI) benefits can return to their jobs regardless of their employer's size, thereby aligning the reinstatement rights for FLI recipients with those of temporary disability insurance recipients.

Additionally, the bill clarifies that employees eligible for both earned sick leave and temporary disability benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits can choose which type of leave to use and the order in which they are taken, but cannot receive more than one type of paid leave simultaneously. The bill also includes provisions to protect employees from retaliation by their employers for taking leave, ensuring that all employees of businesses with five or more employees are afforded the same rights to reinstatement after taking family leave.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 34:11B-3, 43:21-55.2