The State of California has over the years enacted laws establishing programs designed to alleviate the hardships experienced by workers of this state in times of distress. These programs are structured in such a way as to render assistance expeditiously, inexpensively, and effectively, with the goal of reducing to a minimum the suffering caused to workers in certain situations.
The distress toward which a certain body of these laws is directed is tha which may be visited upon a worker and, in many cases, upon his or her family, when he or she becomes unable to work and/or is in need of medical care (including death benefits) as a result of an on-the-job injury; or when due to an injury or illness to him or her unrelated to the job; or due to inability to find a suitable job following termination from work; and further, when he or she must take time off from work to care for a family member who is in need of medical care.
The on-the-job injury situation is covered by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Program; the unrelated to the job injury or illness is covered by the State Disability Compensation Insurance Program; the inability to find work after termination from a job is covered by the Unemployment Compensation Insurance Program; and the need to care for an ill family member is covered by the Paid Family Medical Leave Act.
This book is a concise and realistic explanation of the Unemployment Compensation Insurance program, the State Disability Compensation Program, and the Paid Family Leave program.
In P-B-462, the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board observed that the unemployment, state disability, and workers' compensation programs are intended to complement each other. All three programs, said the Board, are distinct in purpose, and all component elements of a general coordinated plan of social insurance and do not need to compete, clash, or cancel each other out.
The Regulations contained in this book are set forth in the California Code of Regulations that address the Unemployment Insurance Compensation program, the State Disability Compensation Insurance program, and the Paid Family Leave program are numbered in such a way as to correspond with the codified sections of the Unemployment and Disability Insurance Code. They are set forth in Title 22, Social Security, Division 1, Employment Development Department, published by Barclay's Official Code of Regulations, and may be ordered by telephoning Barclay's at (800) 888-3600.
Realizing that in certain instances the reader must have the precise language of a Code section at hand, we have added throughout this book quotes directly from a number of pertinent Code sections.
Case citations have been carefully selected and those which are set forth in this book are not always intended to constitute authority for or against the conclusions drawn, or the analysis given, but may be intended to refer the reader to an authority that discusses the general subject matter, or the specific subject of analysis, in more detail.
We have continued our initial goal of setting forth sufficient facts and Appellate Court or Appeals Board language, from the leading cases, so that rarely will the reader have to seek out the case itself to fully understand the reasoning of the Court or Board.
Case citations in this book include Published and Unpublished Appellate Court cases as well as Precedent Board decisions and numerous Board decisions referenced, for example, as BD 5604. See section 11.1.2 of this book for the controlling effect of such decisions on the Director, Board panels, as well as Board Judges.
The Appeals Board has the power, acting as a whole and by majority vote of its members, to designate certain of its decisions as Precedent decisions. Once designated, those Precedent decisions are controlling, in cases of similar factual situations, on the Employment Development Department, Board panels, as well as Appeals Board Judges, except as modified by judicial decision. Precedent Board decisions are alluded to throughout this book, and in some cases we quote extensively from the decisions. At the present time they number from P-B-1 to P-B-510, and the actual case can be downloaded from the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board's website. Go to: www.cuiab.ca.gov
Finally, we hope we have succeeded in our goal of sorting out and bringing to our readers' attention those endless laws and cases of which we all must be aware in the fields covered by this book. To sort out is not enough. We hope we have placed them in those places you will logically look to see if there is law on the issue under study.
David W. O'Brien, Esq.