Can CA Employers Require A Doctors Note For Paid Sick Leave?

As previously discussed, the California Department of Industrial Relations, which will enforce California's new Paid Sick Leave law, put out a webinar to discuss compliance issues. According to the webinar, requiring employees to provide doctors' notes could be construed as unlawful interference with their statutory right to the leave.

Nothing in the statute specifically addresses whether employers can ask for doctors' notes. But it's such a well-established practice with similar types of leave, that it seemed safe to assume it was allowable. Still, somehow the DIR has interpreted the statute to say that denying Paid Sick Leave for failure to provide a doctor's note may be unlawful.