Nevada’s kin care law protects certain absences, but can others lead to termination?

In 2021, Nevada became the latest state to enact a “kin care” leave law, which provides a leave of absence from work so employees can care for an immediate family member. While many businesses are sensitive to workers’ family commitments, there’s equal concern they will abuse the system by taking time off for reasons the new law isn’t designed to protect. Given that the statute also prohibits employers from retaliating against those who exercise their right to take kin care leave, when is a leave of absence protected by the new law, and when is it an unprotected absence that can lead to discipline, up to and including termination?

How new law works

The Nevada Legislature amended Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) Chapter 608 by adopting Assembly Bill (AB) 190 (2021), which provides:

If an employer provides paid or unpaid sick leave for the use of his or her employees, the employer must allow an employee to use any accrued sick leave to assist a member of the immediate family of the employee who has an illness, injury, medical appointment or other authorized medical need to the same extent and under the same conditions that apply to the employee when taking such leave.

AB 190 defines “immediate family” as a child, foster child, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent of an employee or anyone for whom the employee is a legal guardian.