Updates to employee handbooks for 2025

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It’s that time of the year again for employers to plan for their new obligations that come with the rash of new laws effective January 1st. Some of the new laws effective 2025 call for updates to employee handbooks. Here is a summary of handbook updates that you should plan for:

EEO/Harassment policies

There are two updates needed for these policies.

  1. Discrimination law has been clarified to protect “intersectionality” of existing protected characteristics. In other words, unlawful discriminatory practices include discrimination based on any combination of protected characteristics, not just a single one. Therefore your EEO, harassment and retaliation policies should specify that discrimination/harassment is prohibited based on any combination of protected characteristics or traits.
  2. The Fair Employment and Housing Act’s definition of “race” has been revised to exclude the term “historically” from the definition of race. Previously, the definition of race indicated “traits historically associated with race” but this definition was thought to be ambiguous. The characteristic of “race” as applied to the FEHA through the CROWN Act includes hair texture and protective hairstyles, such as braids, locks, and twists. As such, your EEO, harassment and retaliation policies should remove “historically” from the designation of race as a protected characteristic.

Victims of crime leave policy

Several changes to the existing law allowing leave for victims of crime were enacted, including as follows:

  • Employers are prohibited from retaliating against or otherwise discriminating against employees who participate in the legal process, such as taking time off to serve as required by law on an inquest jury or trial jury, appearing in court to comply with a subpoena or a restraining order or other injunctive relief, to help ensure the health, safety, or welfare of the employee or their child where the employee is a victim of a QAV.
  • The definition of “victims” is broadened to include victims of certain specified “qualifying acts of violence,” and victims can now include the employee’s family members.
  • Employers are also prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against employees because of the employee’s status or their family member’s status as a victim of a qualifying act of violence.

Existing handbook policies on this type of leave should be updated to reflect the expanded scope of coverage and employee rights.

Paid Family Leave

It is common for employer policies to specify that employees must use a certain amount of vacation or other paid time off (up to 2 weeks) prior to receiving Paid Family Leave benefits from the State. Effective 2025, employers will no longer be able to require employees to use vacation or other paid time off before they receive Paid Family Leave benefits. As such, any handbook policies that require employees to use vacation/PTO time prior to receiving Paid Family Leave benefits should be revised accordingly. However, since Paid Family Leave benefit payments from the State only partially replace the employee’s wages, employees may choose to supplement these payments with some paid vacation/PTO time, as long as the total payments from both do not exceed the employee’s normal pay.

Employment counsel specializing in drafting personnel policies should be consulted regarding handbook revisions. Also, for a comprehensive description of new employment laws for 2025, see Scali Rasmussen’s recent Ahead of the Curve publication.