Helping Working Caregivers to Legally Expand the Definition of Family

Denise M. Brown, founder of Caregiving.com, caregiver advocate and my good friend was recently quoted in a New York Times article addressing the challenges of caregiving while working. As a caregiver who is both an employee and a manager, I have a bit of a unique perspective about caregiving while working. While caring for my brother, I manage a law firm but also have several employees who are or have been a caregiver to a family member.

As a manager, I am personally very supportive of my employees when they have these situations and work with them so they know how important they are to our firm but also so they don't stress about not being at work while handling caregiving duties. It may sometimes involve me running a little interference between the partners (my bosses) and the staff member but it is worth it. I have talented people working for me and I like to think we can work together to come up with a solution that works for both the business and the employee.

I feel lucky that my position can be somewhat flexible because I can bring work home or work on a weekend if I have to miss a few hours for Robert's doctor appointments or take a day off to move him (or meet with his care facility). As Denise suggests in a related post, I keep the partners who "need to know" in the know about my situation and they have been very supportive and understanding.

One of the issues I've run across as an employee is being able to take sick time to care for my brother. The definition of "family" under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) includes caring for parents, children or a spouse. Siblings and grandparents are excluded at this time and many employers (including mine) follow the FMLA and CFRA definition for our sick time rules. Since I began caring for Robert, I've had to take vacation days to handle Robert’s doctor appointments, helmet fittings, emergency room visits as well as the time spent placing Robert in a care facility and all that entails (which adds up to a lot of hours!). So while my bank of sick time is maxed out (because I rarely take a sick day), I have exhausted much of my vacation time (and not because I take a lot of long vacations).

Only recently was I actually able to work something out with my employer so that I will now be allowed to take sick days when caring for Robert but it took a lot of effort and was only changed because I met some very specific requirements necessary to do so (one of which is being employed with them for so darn long.). I appreciate this change but I cannot get those vacation days back from the last few years of caring for Robert.

However, I am one of the lucky ones – many times people have to take time off without pay and do not have their job protected in order to care for a family member not currently included in the FMLA and CFRA definition of family.

Several times, the California legislature has passed legislation to expand the definition of family under CFRA and several times it was vetoed (ugh - thanks, Arnold!). Sandre Swanson (D-16) is trying again and has introduced AB-59. The California Work and Family Coalition has prepared a sample letter of support to send to Assemblymember Swanson. It may be too late for this to get passed this year (in May it was “held under submission” which doesn’t sound promising) but if we push, perhaps we can get momentum going for it next year. Please help to get this expanded definition of family through the legislature and finally signed into law.

We (as in caregivers and reasonable people) already know what family means but we need to help the legislature properly and legally define it in order to expand protection for the millions of working caregivers.

I appreciate your help in this endeavor!