On September 15, 2014 Governor Brown signed AB 2536, which implements changes to California Labor Code section 230.3. Prior to the passage of this bill, California law prohibited employers from discharging or discriminating against employees for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel. “Emergency rescue personnel” was defined to include an officer, employee, or member of a political subdivision of the state, or of a sheriff’s department, police department, or a private fire department. This new law expands the definition of “Emergency rescue personnel” to include an officer, employee, or member of a disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by the state. The changes to section 230.3 now also require an employee who is a health care provider to notify his or her employer at the time the employee becomes designated as emergency rescue personnel and at any time the employee learns that he or she will be deployed as a result of that designation.
