CELA-Backed Bills Advance to Governor’s Desk 

August is always the most active month of the year as legislators vote on hundreds of bills, rushing to meet the August 31st deadline to send all bills to the Governor for final approval.  The Legislature sent nearly 800 measures to the Governor in just the last few weeks.  The Governor will have until September 30th to sign or veto all bills passed by the Legislature this year.

Charles Anderson was denied paternity leave after the birth of his baby girl because his employer was too small to be covered by the California Family Rights Act. SB 654 would extend job-protected parental leave to employees at smaller workplaces with 20-49 employees.

Worker rights advocates scored several major victories this month, including the Legislature’s approval of SB 1066, which would extend greater overtime protections to farm workers, and SB 654, one of CELA’s co-sponsored bills that would provide six weeks of job-protected parental leave for up to 2.7 million workers who are not covered under the California Family Rights Act (you can read my Sac Bee op-ed on parental leave here).  SB 654 would extend job-protected parental leave to employees like Charles Anderson (see photo) who work at smaller workplaces with 20-49 employees.

Other CELA-backed bills that were approved this month were:

• SB 1241, which would allow the employee to void any choice-of-venue or choice-of-law provision in an employment agreement that would force the employee to resolve a dispute outside of California or under another state’s laws;
• SB 1078, which would limit the ability of arbitrators to take multiple cases from one party during the pendency of an arbitration and would require disclosures of solicitations by private arbitration companies; and
• AB 1676, which would which would clarify that an employee’s prior salary cannot be the basis for any disparity in compensation when compared to a co-worker of the opposite sex who is doing substantially similar work.

CELA also supported several other measures that are now heading to the governor’s desk for approval:

• SB 1015 – would make overtime protections permanent for domestic workers in California.
• AB 1843 – would prohibit an employer from asking an applicant for employment to disclose, or from utilizing as a factor in determining any condition of employment, information concerning juvenile criminal records.
• SB 1063 – would prohibit an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another race or ethnicity for substantially similar work.
• AB 1978 – would establish various requirements for the janitorial industry, including a registration requirement and protections against workplace sexual violence and harassment.
• AB 2025 – would help increase education and awareness of basic labor laws for nail salon licensees and establishment owners.
• SB 1001 – would prohibit an employer from requesting more or different employment authorization documents than are required under federal law, refusing to honor documents tendered,  or reinvestigating or reverifying an incumbent  employee’s authorization to work. The bill would establish a civil penalty of not more than $10,000.

Mariko Yoshihara, CELA Legislative Counsel & Policy Director

CELA Chair Jean Hyams and CELA Legislative Counsel & Policy Director Mariko Yoshihara presenting the Stronger California Women’s Economic Security Agenda on Women’s Equality Day.

Thank you to all the CELA members who helped with our legislative efforts this year!   To read more about our legislative agenda and to see a complete list of bills we are tracking, visit www.cela.org/legislative or email mariko@cela.org.