Safe Leave Documentation & Confidentiality Rules

The Safe Leave Working Group is made up of state, national, and tribal experts and advocates from across policy spaces, based on the principle that paid, protected leave from work is an essential tool for the safety, agency, and economic security of survivors of all types of violence, including gender-based violence and harassment, family and domestic violence, and sexual violence. The Center for American Progress and Futures Without Violence co-chair the working group.

This document builds upon the working group’s previously released product, The Need for Paid Safe Leave & Model Legislative Language, which provided model legislative language regarding paid safe leave. This document is intended to be a resource for policymakers, advocates, and stakeholders, as well as for employers seeking to improve their own policies. It includes recommendations for when workers can be required to provide documentation for safe leave claims, and, where required, what types of documentation options should be allowed. In addition, this document provides recommendations for confidentiality practices regarding safe leave use. Recognizing that paid sick and safe leave and paid family and medical leave laws raise similar but distinct considerations, the document provides separate recommendations for each type of law.