Dispute Resolution

Small Employer Family Leave Mediation Program

CRD enforces the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which protects employees and job applicants from discrimination and harassment based on a protected characteristic. The Fair Employment and Housing Act also guarantees eligible employees certain types of job-protected leave.

Through CRD’s “small employer family leave mediation program,” small employers having between five and 19 employees and their employees have the right to mediate with CRD – free of charge – disputes involving the following types of leave before the employee may go to court:

• Leave to care for the employee’s own serious health condition or a family member’s serious health condition, or to bond with a new child (California Family Rights Act or CFRA)
• Bereavement leave after the death of a family member
• Reproductive loss leave (death or loss of a child during assisted reproduction, pregnancy, birth, adoption, or surrogacy)

For more information about this mediation program, please review the following (FAQs):

• English (PDF)
• Chinese (PDF)
• Korean (PDF)
• Spanish (PDF)
• Tagalog (PDF)
• Vietnamese (PDF)