Legislative Counsel & Policy Director

Over the past few months, CELA’s Legislative Committee has been working diligently to help formulate next year’s legislative agenda. In particular, we have been working closely and meeting regularly with labor and immigrant rights’ groups in California and strategizing with coalition partners around the state on how to ensure that all California workers are treated with dignity and respect. We are focused mainly on preserving baseline worker protections in California, protecting immigrant workers, combatting hate and bias in the workplace, and continuing to attack forced arbitration.

In the next couple months, as the Trump administration takes over, we will be finalizing our legislative proposals based on feedback from our members and our coalition partners on worker protections that need most urgent attention. We will not only defend workers’ rights that may be under attack by the new administration, but we will also continue to push forward on policies like family leave, equal pay, and fair scheduling. Already, we are working with Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson on legislation to expand parental leave rights to more California workers and to expand the ability to take leave to care for extended family members.

We are also keeping a close watch on what is happening in Washington and are plugged in with national ally groups like the National Employment Lawyers Association, Alliance for Justice, and Public Citizen who are preparing for a battle to preserve our civil justice system. CELA will do all that it can to support our national partners who are engaged in these critical efforts and will call on our members to participate as needed.

CELA’s Legislative Committee welcomes the participation and input from all CELA members. If you have a legislative proposal that you would like us to consider or you would like to get involved in our legislative and political activities, please email mariko@cela.org. For a list of bills that were recently signed into law and bills we are tracking in the new legislative session, please visit www.cela.org/legislation.

Newly introduced bills:

AB 5 (Gonzalez D) Employers: Opportunity to Work Act.
Summary:  Would create the Opportunity to Work Act. The bill would require an employer with 10 or more employees to offer additional hours of work to an existing nonexempt employee before hiring an additional employee or subcontractor, except as specified, would require an employer to post a notice of employee rights, as specified, and would require the employer to maintain certain documentation. The bill would authorize an employee to file a complaint for violation of these provisions with the division and to, in the alternative, bring a civil action for remedies under the act.

AB 39 (Bocanegra D) Hate crimes.
Summary: Would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish a “Hate Crime Registry” for purposes of creating a repository of information on hate crimes committed in California.

AB 46 (Cooper D)   Employers: wage discrimination.
Summary:  This bill would define “employer” for purposes of the Fair Pay Act to include public and private employers.

SB 31 (Lara D)  State agencies: disclosure of religious affiliation information.
Summary:  Existing law prohibits a state agency from including a question regarding an applicant‘s race, sex, marital status, or religion in any application form for employment. This bill would prohibit a state agency from providing or disclosing to the federal government information regarding a person’s religious affiliation when the information is sought for compiling a database of individuals based solely on religious affiliation.

SB 33 (Dodd D) Forced arbitration:  fraud, identity theft, and wrongful use of personal identifying information.
Summary:  Would prohibit a person from requiring a waiver of a legal right that arises as a result of fraud, identity theft, and any other act related to the wrongful use of personal identifying information as a condition of entering into a contract for the provision of goods or services. The bill would require any waiver of these rights to be knowing and voluntary, express and in writing, and not a condition of entering into the contract or a condition of providing or receiving goods or services.

SB 62 (Jackson D) Family leave.
Summary:  Would make various changes to the definitions of the Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act thereby expanding the persons and purposes for which leave is required to be provided under the act. The bill would redefine the term “child” to include a biological, adopted, or foster son or daughter, a stepchild, a legal ward, a son or daughter of a domestic partner, or a person to whom the employee stands in loco parentis, and would remove the restriction on age or dependent status. The bill would expand the definition of leave with regard to caring for persons with a serious health condition to also include leave to care for a grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or domestic partner who has a serious health condition.

SB 63 (Jackson D) Parental leave.
Summary:  Would prohibit an employer with 20-49 employees from refusing to allow an employee with more than 12 months of service with the employer, and who has at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the previous 12-month period, to take up to 12 weeks of parental leave to bond with a new child within one year of the child’s birth, adoption, or foster care placement.