 to share my screen with you. So I want to talk today about the workplace rights of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. And so Legal Aid at Work is a nonprofit based in San Francisco, but we perform services and assist individuals throughout the state of California. We were founded over 100 years ago. We use such tools, such as litigation, clinics, helplines, policy advocacy work, and direct representation to assist workers in California. We have a variety of programs. Project Survive is the program that I work under. And what we'll be talking about today, but we have work and family, gender equity, LGBT rights, wage protection, racial, economic justice, and disability rights to name a few. Project Survive is part of Legal Aid at Work. And it's our program that helps survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking with issues that come up in the workplace. So we provide free legal representation, perform community outreach, education, and policy advocacy. We do have a dedicated Survive helpline for survivors to call us if they have any questions or concerns about issues in the workplace. And I'll have all that information towards the end of the presentation. Why are survivor rights important in the workplace? Well, 60% of survivors either have to quit their jobs or are terminated because of abuse. And the Department of Labor has reported that survivors of domestic violence lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year. So we know that work and economic stability are safety issues, and there are very important survivors to be able to leave dangerous situations. So as we move forward in the presentation, I want us to focus on four big topics that will come up in terms of workplace needs of survivors. So job protected time off. Do survivors have the ability to take time off work and will their job be protected during that time? Second, workplace accommodations. So do survivors need specific workplace accommodations for safety reasons? And how can they ask for those? Is an employer required to provide those? Protections against discrimination. So it's important the survivors feel that they can take this time off work, ask for accommodations and not be retaliated against, not be discriminated against because of their status as survivors. So we'll talk a little bit about what those protections look like as well. And fourth, which is very important in terms of economic stability is income replacement. So survivors, can they take the time off of work? Can they ask for accommodations? And during this time off of work, are they going to be able to receive income? What type of wage replacement policies and programs are in place so that survivors can safely take this time off of work and not lose income? So I wanna start off with job protected leave for survivors. So as we talk about that, there are specific the use of specific laws that relate to survivors and they are codified in the labor code. So labor code section 230 is specific to survivors and it provides job protected leave for survivors to go to court. So I want to highlight a recent change in the law that I think is important for the public to know because it just came into effect January of this year. And so labor code 230 before this year was specific for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. But as of January, 2021, it now includes survivors of a crime that has caused a physical mental injury or a threat of physical injury. And so it has expanded and now protects more individuals. I think that's important to keep in mind. So survivors are able to take job protected leave to obtain or attempt to obtain relief through the court system. And that can include a temporary restraining order, a permanent restraining order or other injunctive relief to help ensure the health, safety or welfare of the survivor or his or her child. And so that could look like potentially custody arrangements, anything that's gonna help protect the survivor and or their children. And before I move on, I just wanted to mention, I will address questions towards the end of every section and then we can discuss if there's any questions that come up. And so moving on to a similar part of the labor code, labor code section 230.1. So this is also job protected leave for survivors, but this is to receive services. So section 230 was specific for issues with the court, getting restraining orders, temporary restraining orders, hearings, potential custody issues that have to do with going to court. And for that section, it applied to all employers, all employees, it didn't matter the size. Didn't matter how long you were working for your employer, you were able to access that job protected leave. Now, for other job protected leave under section 230.1 to receive services, and we'll explain what services are in a second, your employer must have at least 25 or more employees. So this specific code section is going to be a protection that only survivors that work for larger companies, companies with 25 or more employees can access. And what this gives is job protected leave for survivors, again, of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and then the added group, which would be any survivors of crime that cause a physical mental injury or a threat of physical injury. So these individuals can take job protected leave to attend doctor accounting visits, meet with a sexual assault advocate, a DV advocate or a victim advocate to do safety planning with organizations that can assist with that, or to seek temporary or permanent relocation if they need to find shelter. They can take time off of work, job protected time off of work to be able to receive some of those services. And so disclosure requirements. So to get this time off of work, you do need to inform your employer that you are a survivor, so that they know that they are required to give you this time off of work. So you will need, if you do need leave, you do need to inform your employer that you're set as a survivor. Now I know that can be a daunting thing to think about to have to disclose such personal information, but it is important that they know this to be able to grant you that leave and also know that an employer cannot retaliate against you for taking leave under section 230 or 230.1. So another part of asking for a job protected leave under these sections, aside from having to disclose your status as a survivor is notice. So oftentimes notice to your employer that you need this leave is not possible, especially in very emergent chaotic situations, it can be difficult to last thing on your mind is to notify your employer that you need leave. So an emergency situation. So that's understandable and the labor code understands that. So if you can, reasonable notice should be given before taking time off if feasible. So if you know that you have a hearing in the future and you can give that notice, great, but oftentimes that's not possible. So unscheduled time off is still protected as long as the survivor can provide certification within a reasonable period of time. So what is certification? So certification, employers may request this and it can be any of the following and there also has been changes. So now I will go over that as well. So certification can be a letter from a domestic violence or sexual assault counselor, a victim advocate or a healthcare provider, a police report documenting the violence, a court order, such as a restraining order. Basically what the certification does is it explains that your status as a survivor, it explains why you needed to take the time off during that what period of time it covers. And so that's why these are important. So if you have a court order obviously saying you were in court during that time for a restraining order, then that will provide sufficient certification. Oftentimes you might not have this or many survivors don't want to provide a police report because of some of the sensitive information that is in there and that's completely understandable. So there has been a recent change again in January of this year and I think it's important to highlight that as well. This is a great change that I think will make things easier for survivors when it comes to certification. So as of January 1st of this year, a survivor needing to take time off of work under section 230 or 230.1 can use any other form of documentation including a self-certifying written statement that verifies that a crime or abuse occurred and that the absence they took was for a legal purpose for a purpose that you can use under Labor Code 230 or 230.1. And so what that means is basically a survivor can self-certify. They can write a letter themselves saying that they need to take time off of work that they are a survivor, they need to take time off of work for whatever the reason would be to go to court to retain your restraining order to seek assistance from a local domestic violence shelter or organization that's helping them safety plan and that should be sufficient for the certification requirement. And so that should ease a little bit of the requirements that survivors need to be able to take the time off work. And so I wanna pause for a second and see if there are any questions on that section so far. Yes, there's a question from Anna. She wanna know if, you know, what you discuss as part of the Valence Against Women Act. It's actually a California protection. That's a great question, Anna. It's a California, it's under California Labor Code and VAWA is actually a federal legislation. And so it's not specifically under VAWA. I think the purpose is the same to protect survivors of domestic violence, survivors of sexual assault, but it's not specifically under the federal program VAWA. It is a California protection under California law. Got it, thank you. Question from Susan. What if your employer fire you because of a violent incident at your workplace? Okay, that is a great question as well. So if you have been, it sounds potentially like it could be retaliation, a termination because you were potentially attacked in the workplace. So we just, with that little bit of information, I would say that there's potential for a violation. And so I would suggest contacting an attorney. You can contact our office. We could potentially get better, more information and try and evaluate the situation to see if there were any potential violations of your workplace rights. But generally speaking, an employer should not take any retaliatory measures, including terminating someone just because they are a survivor. But we would need a little bit more information about that. Thank you. Another question from Anna. Would this definition under the labor code include a legal internship? So as long as there is an employer-employee relationship, and so even if you might not be getting paid or if you are getting paid, there is gonna be some sort of relationship between the person that's directing your work and you as the employer or worker, then you should be covered under this protection. So yes. Thank you. And that's all the question we have so far. Great, okay. So if anything else comes up, again, we'll check back in towards the end of the section. So moving on, protections against discrimination for survivors. So the labor code also has this protection and it's codified in law. And so an employer may not discriminate based on an employee's known status as a victim, which is the language used in the labor code, but as a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. And so that's important to note that there are protections for survivors that they cannot be discriminated against because of their status. And so we'll talk about what discrimination could look like on the next slide. So what are some examples? Because oftentimes it might be difficult to know whether or not someone's actions or what they're saying could be considered discrimination. Oftentimes we feel it and we feel like something's wrong but what really could be considered discrimination under the labor code. So I'm gonna go through a couple of examples I think will be helpful in understanding that. So Anne advises her survivor, her supervisor that she is in the process of getting her name changed as part of a safety plan to protect her from her ex-husband. Her employer's response is to tell her that she has a liability and fires her. So that is going to be prohibited discrimination. Anne is disclosing her status as a survivor. She's disclosing that she is taking measures to protect herself from her ex-husband from future violence. And her employer's response is to fire her. So that is going to be prohibited discrimination. So Maria tells her employer that she fears her ex-boyfriend and has a restraining order against them. Her employer tells her that it does not want to become involved in her personal problems and fires her. So this again is gonna be prohibited discrimination. Maria telling her employer that she has a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend is something that we often see survivors do is to inform their employers. That way they're on notice. That way they know oftentimes they'll give them a copy of their restraining order because their restraining order will say that the person can't come within a certain distance from their home and workplace. And so it's important oftentimes for survivors to give that information to their employer. That way they're on alert. That way they know that this person's not allowed to be around here. And so this is a very inappropriate response from an employer and is prohibited discrimination. The last example, Lara advises her employer that her stalker has been calling her multiple times each day on her work line. Her boss terminates her for taking too many personal calls. So let's look at the third one. The third one I think is interesting because it doesn't necessarily go, it's not as direct as your liability, your personal problems. This is, you're just taking too many personal calls but it is still considered, it still is discrimination because Lara is telling them that this person is not someone she wants to get calls from. She, these calls are not welcomed. This person is a stalker. And so this is not the appropriate way for the boss to handle this. And it is prohibited discrimination. And actually I wanna go back and talk about that for a second. What would have been a better response to that? What could Lara's employer have done? And I think one example would be to have basically said, let's change your work line or let's not have your work line listed on our website. So there's ways that employers can work with employees to not only not commit discrimination but also provide a safe work environment for employees that might be survivors. And I think, and we're gonna get into a little bit more about that under accommodations but that was just a little bit of preview of what an employer can do. So I think we might have a question. It's Anna. She's actually saying that the person could let the calls go into voicemail. Would you recommend, if you're a client, it's getting calls from stalkers. Would you recommend them to just let the calls go to voicemail? Yeah, so that is a great question. Obviously, the survivor could just let the calls go to voicemail but it could be difficult as well. It could be so many calls that other calls can't come in. It could be a distraction. Maybe the person really needs, she has a job where they really need to use her phone. And so having that person basically take over that line is going to create problems. And so we can talk a little bit more about what accommodations can look like but there are solutions for a situation like that. And I think one solution would be to change the person's work line. Change the person's work line, block that person's number. We've had instances where an employer has blocked a specific number. They know the number of the stalker or the person that's harassing the worker. Or just unlist that number if it's public, if the person's extension is public on the website, company website, so there are definitely some solutions. So we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in this section. So workplace accommodations. So employers actually do have their responsibility to work with the workers who are survivors when it comes to their safety and safety accommodations. So an employer must grant a survivor's request for a reasonable safety related change on the job unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. And this is codified in the labor code. So there's protection exists in California under section 230 F. So what does this mean? So the change, the accommodation has to be safety related. It has to be individualized. So based on the survivor's particular needs and once the survivor requests a change, the employer is required to participate in what we call the interactive process. What that means is they need to communicate openly and consistently with the survivor to try and determine what is an effective accommodation. And so the last fourth part is you cannot cause an undue hardship to the business. So when it comes to the interactive process what's important is it's a back and forth. So the survivor is gonna ask for accommodation, let's say they ask that they be removed from the company website as a safety related change. They don't wanna be listed as an employee on the website. And so the employer could just say, great, we can do that. And that would be the end of the interactive process. So what if the employer says, no, I don't think we can do that, but we can maybe take your picture down. So they're engaging in the interactive process to see like they're saying, well, we can't provide you this but maybe we can do this. Or if someone requests being moved to a different location for safety reasons, maybe they say we can't do that but we can put you in an area of this office that is not accessible to the public. So it's the interactive process of back and forth. The employer can't just be like, no, and leave it at no. They need to say why they can't or offer some sort of alternative. Now, there is the possibility that the employer can say they can't because it's an undue hardship on them. And so that is something that they have to show that it really is an undue hardship. And they would say potentially that it's too expensive for them. It's not something they could realistically accomplish. But oftentimes that's not the case and oftentimes some of these requests are really not that difficult, changing someone's number or blocking a number, taking someone's information down from the website. So it's not often that we see that undue hardship. And here are some examples I talked about earlier I mentioned already mentioned changing someone's work telephone extension, removing contact information from a website, relocating someone's workstation, modifying their schedule. Maybe it's better for them to come in in the middle of the day instead of early, different days, reassigning a different shift, allowing a transfer to a different location, installing locks or surveillance cameras or any other equipment that would potentially enhance the security of the workplace and disclosure. So again, it will be necessary that the employee inform their employer that they are a survivor to be able to request this safety accommodation. They need to know why they're requesting it and the fact that they are a survivor. Again, an employer cannot retaliate against a survivor for requesting a reasonable safety related accommodation and cannot discriminate against an employee because of their status as a survivor. And so enforcement, so what would we, where can a survivor go if someone is violating any of the sections or protections under a labor code 230 to 230.1 including safety related accommodations? Well, they would file, they could file a complaint with the California division of labor standards enforcement, the retaliation unit, which is the DLSC known as the labor commissioner's office. And so you would have one year from the retaliatory act or one year to be able to file a complaint with the labor commissioner or the DLSC. And so I think we might have some questions on that before I move on to incoherent placement. No, there's no question. But Anna just wrote, is this retroactive? Is this retroactive? So you can go back a year. So what that means is if this happened to you, eight months ago, nine months ago, you can still file a complaint but there is a one year sexual limitations to be able to bring this claim to the DLSC labor commissioner's office. Thank you. There's no other question for now. Okay, great. So now let's talk about income replacement. So these protections are great and especially the job-protective leave but in reality, some individuals are not gonna be able to access the sleeve if they don't have income during this time. So they could have the leave but if they cannot get income replacement during the time that they're taking the sleeve, it really becomes inaccessible to them. So it's important to talk about what programs exist so that survivors can take job-protective leave. So there is some programs of the EDD, the California State Disability Insurance. And so this is a partial wage replacement program that is available to workers who are unable to work due to non-workplace disabilities or injuries. This actually includes pregnancy as well. And normally we place 60% of wages for all workers and 70% for the lowest income earners. Citizenship and immigration status are irrelevant but there's a one-week waiting period when you do apply. So how could a survivor use this? So if a survivor finds himself injured or disabled and disabilities aren't just physical, they can be mental disabilities, they can request state disability insurance if they're able to get a medical certification from their doctors. And so survivors can potentially use this to if they need to take time off work to recover from any disabilities or injuries, they can use this to replace their wages. Also paid family leave. So this is something that we see used by caregivers of survivors, family members. And so what this is is a partial, again, partial wage replacement program. It can be used for a variety of things. You know, in the context of survivors, we have seen it used when their family members have needed to take time off to care for them. So you can use it to care for a seriously ill close family member which would include a child, parent, spouse, domestic partners, sibling, parent-in-law, grandchild, grandparent. So you can use it to care for a seriously ill close family member and it's gonna replace your wages again in the same percentage, 60% for most workers, 70% for lowest income earners. You can use it for other instances as well, potentially outside of the context of survivors, but people use it for bonding with a newborn child or for leave arising out of military deployment. But we have seen it used when there is a survivor who needs to be cared for by another close family member that family member can tap into paid family leave. And what it provides is up to eight weeks of wage replacement per year. Same thing as SDI, citizenship and immigration status do not affect eligibility. This can be taken intermittently or all at once. So it doesn't have to be taken all together. And so when it comes to, for example, bonding, we'll bear to take it at the same time and must be taken within a year, but it is something we've seen caregivers of survivors take to be able to take time of work to care for a survivor that might need their assistance. And how do you apply? So to apply for SDI and PFL, you apply through the EED, the Employment Development Department, you apply online or through a paper application. And just to reiterate, again, citizenship and or immigration status are not an eligibility requirement. And another way that a survivor can be paid, get wage replacement while they take time off of work is through, I'm sure many of you have heard of California's paid sick days. Well, they're actually paid safe days as well. And what that means is the same paid sick days that you use when you're sick to care for a family member that is sick can also be used for survivors of the most violent and sexual assault and stalking. And so they're called paid safe days at that point. And so you, in California, you accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked. Basically all employers have to give up to three days a year. In San Francisco, there's San Francisco specific ordinances that provide for more. So in San Francisco, if you have 10 or more employees, you get up to 72 hours. You have less than 10, you get up to 40 hours. So there is more hours that you can use in San Francisco for your paid safe days. And this is something that survivors can use when they need to take, drop their time off to go to court, to seek services, they can use this time. Okay, and so I wanna check in to see if we have any questions. Yes, there are two questions. One from Anna. Is there retroactive enforcement under federal law? If so, what would the statute of limitation be? Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with if there is a retroactive enforcement or federal law because these are California specific protections. So I would unfortunately not be able to answer that for you. So I apologize about that. But if you do have really specific questions, I would urge you to call us on our helpline and see if we can maybe provide you with more information and look into those issues a little bit more. And I'll towards the end of the presentation have a slide that has our contact information. Okay, I think that she clarified, she sent her internship here, I think in the Bay Area was a federal program. Does it matter? Oh, okay, no, that wouldn't matter. All employees that work in California are covered under this law. Great, thank you so much. Another question from Eve. What if injury or assault happens at work? Can you get state disability? Or if it doesn't happen at work, but the perpetrator is a co-worker? That's a great question. So if an injury happens at work, you actually can apply for workers compensation. So any injury that happens at work, you would apply for the workers compensation program. Every employer in California has to have workers compensation insurance. And so any injury that happens at the workplace while you're at work would be covered under that. And so that's what you would use as workers compensation. And so they would provide medical attention for the injuries and then also potentially provide for temporary disability benefits while you recover from those injuries. And that's through workers compensation. And then I think you said there was a second part to that. No, that was it. But she asked actually about state disability. Yeah, so the state disability insurance program, SDI, which I spoke about in a few sites before, that's for injuries that happen outside of the workplace. So if you're, for example, in a car accident or if you are the survivor of an attack outside of the workplace and you would use SDI if you're disabled and needing time to recover. If you suffer an attack or an assault at the workplace then workers compensation would be the program that you would use to get medical attention as well as receive temporary disability benefits. I think the second part of the question was if it doesn't happen at the work site but the individual who the attacker is a coworker. So if something happens outside of the workplace not during workplace hours, not when you're supposed to be working not during a shift and not on the work site but the person is someone you work with a coworker then you would use SDI, it wouldn't be workers compensation because it's not at the work site even though the person's a coworker. So it wouldn't be considered a worker's compensation issue. And I think these are all the questions. So I'm going to move on to unemployment insurance for survivors. So this is something that I think is not as well known. So I wanna go over it. So if a survivor, we talked about staying at work getting time off of workplace safety related workplace accommodations but what if a survivor cannot stay at work? What if they have to leave? In California, we've seen a lot of information about unemployment insurance recently especially during the pandemic. And so there is a provision in California for survivors of domestic violence where they can establish good cause. So most of the time to get unemployment insurance you need to have been laid off or basically let go from your job through no fault of your own. You can't quit and receive unemployment insurance usually. But in California, if you can establish good cause for leaving then you could potentially still get unemployment insurance. And so if you need to leave your job because you need to protect yourself or your children from domestic violence then you could likely establish good cause which would allow you to still get unemployment insurance even though you were the one who left your job. And so to establish good cause a survivor must show that themselves or their children experience an act or threat of domestic violence abuse that the survivor has a restraining order, a police report or really any other information that would identify the batterer and or verifies the abuse. And then a leave of absence or a transfer was not available or would not resolve the problem. And so we have seen this happen before. I had a client who was being stalked by their abusive ex-husband at their place of work and had a restraining order, had requested a leave or transfer, I'm sorry because this individual kept on showing up to her workplace and they were unable to grant the transfer. They gave a leave of absence but then they needed the person back. And so it was just not safe for her to go back. And so she had to quit that job because it was just unsafe for her. And so she was able to show good cause and able to still qualify for unemployment insurance even though she was the one who essentially quit. And so this is the next section. I wanted to see if anyone had any questions regarding that before I moved on. Not yet. I don't see any question now in the chat. Okay, thank you. So for the next part, I wanna talk about some other just protections available to survivors. And so we spoke a little bit about that which is job protective leave to care for your own serious health condition or that of a family member. We talked a little bit about that and we talked about paid family leave. But that was a type of wage replacement, a type of income replacement. We didn't really dive yet into job protective leave. And again, I wanna just emphasize that in California when you take job protective leave, you also have to see am I gonna get paid? And sometimes there are different processes and different laws when they protect you while you take the time off and one that gives you income replacement while you're taking that time off. The only difference is for paid sick days and paid safe days, the law protects both your job, protects your job while you're taking the time off and gives you income replacement. But aside from those, in California, you really have to analyze can I take this time off of work? For example, under Labor Code section 230. And then can I get paid for taking this time off of work? And so that's where the wage replacement programs come in like paid family leave or state disability insurance. And then the second issue I wanna talk about is reasonable accommodations for disabilities, which is something I think gets overlooked sometimes in these instances. So this is something I really wanna highlight because there is a big change in the law as well. So the California Family Rights Act, CIFRA, it's oftentimes, I would say confused with FMLA, but which is the federal program that is similar, but this is a really big distinction. So California Family Rights Act, CIFRA, provides 12 weeks of job protected leave for various reasons. One is to bond with a new child, the others are to care for a family member. So we spoke about getting wage replacement for that. Now, this allows you to actually take the time off work and have your job be protected while you do that. So to care for a family member. Now, there has been some changes beginning January 1st and I wanna highlight those because they're really big changes. So before January 1st, you could take time off of work to care for a family member, which included a parent, spouse, domestic partner, child, but it has been expanded since January to include grandparent, grandchild or sibling with a serious health condition. And so this aligns better now with paid family leave. The same, some of the same family members included in paid family leave are now included in the California Family Rights Act, which will allow individuals to, through paid family leave get paid while they take time off and through CIFRA, California Family Rights Act, actually have job protected time off. So they have a job protected and they get wage replacement while they're taking this time off. So to bond, to care for a family member for your own serious health condition or because of some issue with military active duty deployment. And so there have been changes in the eligibility, great changes, we think that have included more workers in California. So you need to have been at your job for a year to be able to take CIFRA leave. You need to have worked at least 1,250 hours in the prior year before you take the leave, which is about half time. And here's the big change. You only have to work for an employer that has five or more employees. So before this, and basically it mirrored the federal law, FMLA, you needed to have 50 or more employees. And so it really only covered larger employers and people who worked for larger businesses. But now you can still take CIFRA leave if you work for a smaller employer, a smaller company, you only need to work for somewhere that has five or more employees. And so that has really expanded who can take CIFRA leave. And so I think that's a great change. There are some advocacy work and we are working in our office trying to push policy so that, who a family member is, who you can take time off for, gets expanded to chosen family. And we think that's really important, particularly in the survivor context because who is someone's support system? Who can they rely on? Sometimes it is unfortunately someone in their family that is maybe perpetuating the abuse. And so who is this person's chosen family? Who is the person that would be taking care of them? Sometimes it's not anyone on that list. And so as an organization, advocates around the state are trying to push policy changes in the California legislature to be able to expand the definition of a family member to be able to have someone have a chosen family, chosen family member. Maybe someone who's not related by blood or necessarily by law. And so that would be, we think a great expansion to protections and rights for survivors. And if you are interested in any advocacy in that or in being a part of that, you can always contact our office. If you've been affected by that, we would love to hear from you as well. So we talked about other leave, which is CIFRA. Now I wanna talk about other protections, disability protection. So under the ADA, which is the American with Disabilities Act, and FIHA, which is the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which is our California equivalent, ADA is a federal law. This prohibits discrimination against employees with mental or physical disabilities and disabilities under the ADA are just any impairment that will substantially limit. And under FIHA, actually it's a little bit reduced, just has to limit a major life activity, which would include workings, walking, sleeping, eating, anything like that. And so these protections can be used by survivors as well who might have impairments or disabilities who might suffer from PTSD, anxiety, depression. If they require reasonable accommodations, we spoke about safety-related accommodations, but sometimes survivors need other types of accommodations because of potential disabilities or impairments that they have. And so if they do need a reasonable accommodation at work that would allow them to enable them actually to work with these disabilities that might limit some of the things that they do, they can request accommodations. And so some examples of reasonable accommodations include leaves of absences, reduced work schedules, transferring structural modifications to how they're being managed, so management styles. To be able to request these, you would need, unlike the, it's a little similar to safety-related accommodation, you would need a medical certification. And employers can potentially say that they can't provide this accommodation if they have and if it would be an undue hardship, but this is just something to keep in mind for survivors that might need it. Leave is also a disability accommodation. So if, for example, you have used your 12 weeks at Job Protected Unpaid Leave under CIFRA, and you still need leave from work, you can use, you request a disability accommodation and request it as leave. So if you don't, for example, if you don't qualify or have already exhausted your FMI or CIFRA leave, you may be able to take leave as a reasonable accommodation. Again, unless it's an undue hardship, which in which case the employer would have to look for an equivalent vacancy, but you can request leave as a disability accommodation, but it would be important to give your employer a return to work date. So you always wanna say that you are planning to return to work on a certain date, even if that might change in the future, but even if it's tentative or later extended, you need to make sure that your employer knows that your intention is to come back. You obviously just need time to recover or to, as part of an accommodation for a disability. And another, I think sometimes unknown protection and right that we have is specifically in San Francisco's San Francisco family-friendly workplace ordinance. And so workers have the right to request flexible and predictable work arrangements to assist with care for minor children, serious CEO family members, a parent over 65. Now employers can deny the request if they have a bonafide business reason, but they have to explain that in writing. The requirement would be that you have 20 or more employees to be able to take advantage of this ordinance, have worked six months on the job and work at least eight hours per week. And so having a flexible and predictable work arrangement is something that survivors oftentimes need. It helps with safety planning as well. And actually that is the end of the substantive part of the presentation. I'm happy, I'm sure we might have some questions, but I just wanted to briefly touch base on some of our materials. So we have something called domestic violence and my job. And so it's a great fact sheet that really breaks down these laws that we went through, the protections. If you need time off work, you need, is it job protected? If you need wage replacement, reasonable accommodations and protections, and it really breaks down like if you're the person going through violence or if you're a survivor, what protections do you have? What laws protect you? What options do you have? And then on the other side, it'll say, I'm a caregiver, I'm someone who is caring for someone who is a survivor. What protections, what options do you have to be able to do that effectively and still maintain your job, get wage replacement? And so we have this in multiple languages on our website available, just to provide more information to the public. And we also have a survivor's toolkit. So this is something we're actively working on updating it, but there's some great material right now in it online and you'll have sample request letter. So if you need a reasonable safety related accommodation, there's a sample request letter in there. Sample request letters for time off at work to go to court or to seek services. And then sample healthcare provider or victim advocate certification. So if you are working with a victim advocate or a DV advocate and they would like to help you with certification and you wanna provide them with a sample letter that would be appropriate, then that's in the toolkit as well. And then if you have, again, any additional questions or resources, our website is here. We have a work and family helpline. They can help with more questions about like CIF relief or you saw some instances where we talked about someone being pregnant or caregiving. The work and family program helps quite a bit with issues like that. And I do think there's gonna be a presentation given by one of my colleagues in the future about that for the Certificate of Public Library. And then Project Survive Helpline is specifically geared for survivors who have workplace questions. And then Workers' Rights Clinic, if you have any other question relating to work, any issues that you wanna discuss with someone, you can make an appointment with our Workers' Rights Clinic which is now being held virtually. So they can assist you and multiple fact sheets in various languages on our website as well. And so I wanna see if there's any additional questions from the last section or just from anything else. Yeah, we have two questions, one from Eve. She wrote, does sexual harassment count as a good cause to leave a job to get an employment? It definitely can, it can be, yes. So there's a little bit more to it, but if you are experiencing severe sexual harassment in the workplace, it can potentially be used as good cause for having had to have quit instead of being, oftentimes we say, we know that unemployment for people who are laid off, but if you need to quit for your own safety because of sexual harassment issue in the workplace, then it could be. And so we would need more information and can definitely discuss that in greater detail. But there are some provisions that could potentially protect someone who had to quit because of sexual harassment network. Thank you. A question from Anna. What is an undue hardship exception accommodation under FEHA or ADA? What might this look like? Okay, so an undue hardship exception would be if an employer, it would be an exception to providing that reasonable accommodation under the ADA or FIHA. An undue hardship would be, it's too expensive for the employer. It's an undue hardship on them. They couldn't provide this accommodation you're requesting because it's too expensive. It would slow productivity down to the point where they would not be performing work substantially. And so that would definitely be something they could say would be an undue hardship. So it would make it so that their business couldn't run financially, logistically. Oftentimes it really does hinge on finance like they can't afford to provide this accommodation because it would be prohibitively too expensive. Again, this is a case by case basis and obviously for every employer, it's gonna be different. Someone like Walmart, someone, a huge corporation is gonna have a hard time saying that a small accommodation is gonna be an undue hardship whereas potentially a smaller employer among a pop shop could say something could be too expensive or something they legitimately couldn't do and could say it's an undue hardship. But it's case by case. Thank you, Maria. I don't see any other question in the chat. Does anybody else have a question? You can put it in chat. There's a lot of thank you for you, Maria. Wonderful presentation. Yeah, I don't see other question, but thank you so much, Maria. We really appreciate you taking the time to share with us your professional expertise and thank you, everyone, for joining the program. I hope you find a presentation information informative and helpful to you. Oh, one question from Eve. Is the clinic free? Yes, all of our services are free of charge. Any systems we provide? Yes. Okay, great, thank you. So we will be sending out an evaluation survey together with the slide deck and a link to the recording later today. Please give us your feedback so we can continue to improve. Again, thank you, everyone, and have a wonderful rest of your day. Bye-bye. Thank you.