A lot of employment laws are signed and then go into effect on some future date. We prep for that date so we are ready to handle anything related to the new law. The new Military Spousal Leave Law (AB392) didn't give us any heads up, so you better be ready for it now.

The Military Spousal Leave Law went into effect in California as soon as the Governor signed it on October 9, 2007. Yes, that's right, it's currently in effect for all California companies with 25 or more employees!

If this is new information to you, here's what to do first. Count your full-time, part-time, inactive, and temporary employees … if that number adds up to at least 25, you now know you need to comply with this law. The law was written to provide up to 10 days of unpaid time off for any of your employees with military spouses on leave.

However, this law isn't meant to be a fabulous freebie to everyone connected to the military. There are specific rules for qualifying. The rules qualify both the employee who may be eligible and the type of leave their military spouse may be taking. I'll give a very brief overview here but, if you are affected by this law, you need more details to ensure compliance.

• Your employee may be eligible if s/he either (1) works at least 20 hours/week or (2) has worked an average of at least 20 hours/week for the previous 6 months.
• Your employee may be eligible to take this leave whenever his/her military spouse is on leave from military deployment during a period of military conflict. This means the military spouse will usually be coming back for leave from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. where there's actual fighting happening.
• This affects members of the U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard or Reserves if they have just been near military conflict.
• There is currently no cap to the number of times per year an employee may take this leave, but there is a 10-day cap per leave.
• Your employee must give you verbal notice of taking a Military Spousal Leave withing 2 days of receiving official notice that his/her spouse will be on leave. Your employee needs to provide written documentation of his/her spouse's leave to ensure it matches the time off your employee has requested.
• Since California recognizes registered domestic partners, this law is applied equally to them. 
• This is unpaid time off, although you can choose to continue paying your employee. You cannot force your employee to use accrued vacation time or paid time off or to combine this leave with any other leave.
• You cannot retaliate against the employee for taking advantage of this Military Spousal Law and taking the time off.

As I said, this is merely an overview so don't define your policy on only what you read above. Change your Employee Handbook to include Military Spousal Leave and prepare your managers for the possibility of people taking the leave.