(a) A disabled employee or an employee covered by Section 19878.5 is eligible to receive nonindustrial disability benefits or Family Care Leave benefits, as applicable, under this article, equal to one-seventh of the employee’s weekly benefit amount specified in Section 19879 for each full day during which the employee is unemployed due to their own disability, or due to Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave, only if the Director of Employment Development finds that:

(1) The employee has made a claim for benefits as required by authorized regulations.

(2) A disabled employee has been disabled for a waiting period of seven consecutive days during each disability benefit period, with respect to which waiting period no benefits under this article are payable, except for confinement in a hospital or nursing home for at least one day.

(3) The employee has exhausted all the leave to which the employee was entitled under Article 3 (commencing with Section 19859). A person who elects to use vacation credits or sick leave credits prior to receiving nonindustrial disability benefits is not required to exhaust the leave, as described in this subdivision, if the person is a permanent employee who meets any of the following criteria:

(A) Is excluded from the definition of state employee contained in subdivision (c) of Section 3513.

(B)  Is a nonelected officer or employee of the executive branch of state government and is not a member of the civil service.

(4) Except for an individual described in § 2709 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, a disabled individual has submitted to any reasonable examinations as the Director of Employment Development may require for the purpose of determining benefit eligibility.

(5) A disabled person has filed a certificate described in Section 2708 or 2709 of the Unemployment Insurance Code.

(6) Except as otherwise provided, a disabled person meets, in all other respects, the eligibility requirements imposed on individuals by Part 2 (commencing with Section 2601) of Division 1 of the Unemployment Insurance Code for receipt of unemployment compensation disability benefits.

(b) In case of any conflict between Part 2 (commencing with Section 2601) of the Unemployment Insurance Code and this chapter, this chapter shall prevail.

(c) If the provisions of this section conflict with the provisions of a memorandum of understanding reached pursuant to Section 3517.5, the memorandum of understanding shall be controlling without further legislative action, except that if the provisions of a memorandum of understanding require the expenditure of funds, the provisions shall not become effective unless approved by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act.

(Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 24, Sec. 12. (SB 83) Effective June 27, 2019.)