Overview
California Victims of Violence Leave (CA-DOM) is a job-protected, unpaid leave policy that allows employees, or employees whose family members are victims of a qualifying act of violence, to take time off for court proceedings, safety planning, medical care, and other related needs.
For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.
How to Use
Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:
✅ Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed.
📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform.
💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere.
How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law
AbsenceSoft manages this law through 1 policy.
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Policy Name - California Victims of Violence Leave
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Policy Code - CA-DOM
Employer Coverage Requirements
Refer to Legislative Guidance for details.
Employee Count Thresholds
📝 Configuration Note: CA-DOM is configured to apply to all employers, regardless of size, for absence reasons related to seeking court relief (such as a restraining order) for the employee or the employee's child. All other qualifying absence reasons under this policy are configured to require 25 or more active employees in the work state.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility for employees where coverage thresholds may not align with information sent on the employee demographic file.
Employee Eligibility
Refer to Legislative Guidance for details.
Eligibility Exclusions
📝 Configuration Note: The platform is unable to determine if the employee or the employee’s family member is a victim of certain violent crimes covered by the law.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Eligibility may need to be overridden if the employee’s victim’s status is not covered in the law.
Qualifying Family Members
Refer to Legislative Guidance for details.
Special Family Relationship Requirements
📝 Configuration Note: For family relationships that fall outside the standard configured relationship list (child, spouse/domestic partner, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild), the platform's "Designated Person" relationship should be selected to capture any other close association the employee identifies as equivalent to a family relationship.
📝 Configuration Note: Self must be chosen as a family relationship type if the request pertains to the employee.
Leave Entitlements and Duration
Refer to Legislative Guidance for details.
Entitlement Overview
CA-DOM entitlement amounts vary by qualifying reason and by whether the employee or a family member is the victim; the absence reasons below share a combined pool.
📝 Configuration Note: Safe Leave and Domestic Violence absence reasons have been configured to represent all the activities the employee may take leave for under the law.
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Employee Is the Victim - Seeking Court Relief
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Entitlement - No statutory maximum; applies to time needed to obtain a restraining order or other injunctive relief for the employee or the employee's child
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Employee Is the Victim - All Other Qualifying Reasons
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Entitlement - Up to 12 weeks (employers with 25 or more employees)
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Period - 12-month period determined by employer
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Family Member Is the Victim (Not Deceased)
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Entitlement - Up to 5 days for relocation purposes and up to 10 days for all other qualifying reasons (employers with 25 or more employees)
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Period - 12-month period determined by employer
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Family Member Is Deceased as a Result of a Qualifying Act of Violence
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Entitlement - Up to 12 weeks (employers with 25 or more employees)
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Period - 12-month period determined by employer
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Entitlement Rules
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Users must stop entitlement manually depending on the covered activity to accurately track the entitlement. Users will have to override for situations of court appearances related to the employee being a victim.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Employers may — but are not required to — limit family-member-victim leave to the entitlement amounts above. Manually override entitlement if the employer chooses not to apply the caps, or if court-relief leave for the employee exceeds 12 weeks.
💡 Best Practice: Confirm the employer's decision on whether to apply the family-member-victim entitlement caps and document it in account or case notes.
Pay and Benefits
Refer to Legislative Guidance for details.
Benefit Coordination
📝 Configuration Note: Employees may use accrued paid sick leave, vacation, or personal leave concurrently with CA-DOM; the platform does not track or enforce any employer-specific PTO substitution agreement.
Interaction with other Policies
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If other state or federal job-protected leave programs also apply to the same absence, ensure cases are created separately as intermittent for those policies are added to the case so concurrent entitlement is properly tracked.
💡 Best Practice: Accommodations should be tracked in the accommodation module.
Required Paperwork/Communication
📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork for CA-DOM through the CA Survivors of Violence and Family Members of Victims Right to Leave and Accommodations (CASURVIORSOFVIOLENCE) paperwork/attachment. Paperwork is configured to be sent with the Eligibility Response and Accommodation Acknowledgement Letter communications.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Updates to existing paperwork items can occur. When updates happen, they are automatically applied to paperwork unless the client has customized. Clients with customizations on the relevant paperwork will need to review to determine how to adopt the new paperwork and apply any new customizations to the updated paperwork manually.
Need Help?
For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.