Like most things during this pandemic, the California legislature has been wildly unpredictable and the process for passing legislation has been in constant flux.  Much of the work this year has been done remotely and on a truncated timeline, creating many challenges and uncertainty for addressing our top legislative priorities.  Earlier in the year, a majority of bills were pulled from consideration so that the legislature could focus its limited time on COVID-related legislation.  We, too, shifted our priorities in order to focus on the most urgent and pressing issues facing workers in these unprecedented times.

In the past few months, CELA has advanced four of our sponsored bills: to strengthen retaliation and whistleblower protections (AB 1947); to provide greater job-protection for workers in the hardest hit industries and for all workers needing sick leave or family leave (AB 3216); to establish health and safety protections for domestic workers (SB 1257); and to help close the gender and race wage gap as our economy regrows (SB 973).  We also joined coalition partners to advance legislation to protect the health, safety and financial security of workers, especially those who are on the front lines (bill details below).  And importantly, we helped pull back menacing legislation aimed at limiting legal liability for claims related to COVID-19 (involving small businesses, schools and higher education facilities).

The legislature plans to work until the end of August to pass all remaining legislation for this year and the Governor will have until the end of September to sign or veto all the bills that make it to his desk.

CELA-Sponsored Bills

• Retaliation Protection:  This bill will extend the filing deadline for administrative retaliation complaints from 6 months to 1 year. The bill will also allow workers to recover their attorneys fees if they prevail in a whistleblower action under Labor Code Section 1102.5.  (AB 1947 Kalra)
• Job-Protection: AB 3216 addresses the public health emergency by expanding eligibility to take unpaid job-protected leave and existing paid sick days, ensuring the right of recall and retention for workers in hotels, event centers, airports, and building services – industries hardest hit by the shelter-at-home rules – and providing three (3) additional days of emergency paid sick days for workers to use during a declared public health emergency.  (AB 3216 Kalra & Gonzalez)
• Pay Data Reporting to Close the Gender and Race Wage Gap: The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the consistent undervaluing of women’s work and the ways in which gender- and race-based pay disparities put women (particularly women of color) at higher risk of economic insecurity and contribute to higher poverty rates overall. This bill would help close the gender wage gap by requiring California employers with 100 employees or more to submit an annual pay data report to the state outlining the compensation and hours worked of its employees by gender, race, ethnicity, and job category.(SB 973 Senator Jackson)
• Domestic Workers’ Health and Safety:  COVID-19 has presented many health and safety risks, particularly for domestic workers who are caring for our sick and elderly.  Unfortunately, domestic workers are exempt from our health and safety laws under Cal/OSHA. We must get rid of this unjust exemption to help ensure domestic workers have basic health and safety protections (SB 1257Durazo).

Other Key Labor and Employment Bills:

AB 1850 (Gonzalez D)   Worker classification: employees and independent contractors.
Summary: This AB 5 follow up bill would exempt from the 3-part ABC test for employment status and instead apply the test set forth in the California Supreme Court’s Borello decision (S.G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341) for certain occupations such as musicians, insurance inspectors and competition judges, subject to specified conditions. The bill would also add appraisers and certain master class teachers to the professional services exemption, revise the freelancer exemption, and recast the exemption for referral agencies, as specified.

AB 2992 (Weber D)   Employment practices: leave time.
Summary:  This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, or discriminating or retaliating against, an employee, who is a victim of crime or abuse, for taking time off from work to obtain or attempt to obtain relief, as prescribed.

AB 3056 (Gonzalez D)   Warehouse distribution centers.
Summary: This bill would enact prescribed protections for certain warehouse and distribution center employees. The bill would prohibit an employer from imposing a quota upon an employee under which reasonable amounts of time that the employee spends on any of the specified activities is counted toward the time required for completing the quota, or results in the employee having less time to complete the quota. The bill would define terms for its purposes.

AB 3075 (Gonzalez D)   Wages: enforcement.
Summary:  This bill would require a business’s articles of incorporation to contain a statement signed by the filers, under penalty of perjury, that the filer is not an owner, director, officer, managing agent, or any other person acting on behalf of an employer, as defined, that has an outstanding final judgment issued by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or a court of law, or a pending appeal, for violation of any wage order or provision of the Labor Code.

SB 275 (Pan D)   Health Care and Essential Workers Protection Act: personal protective equipment.
Summary:  This bill, the Health Care and Essential Workers Protection Act, would require the State Department of Public Health to establish a personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpile to ensure an adequate supply of PPE for health care workers and essential workers, as defined, and would require the stockpile to be at least sufficient for a 90-day pandemic or other health emergency. The bill would require the department to establish guidelines for the procurement of the PPE stockpile, taking into account, among other things, the amount of each type of PPE that would be required for all health care workers and essential workers in the state during the pandemic or other health emergency, which would represent the amount of PPE to be maintained in the stockpile.

SB 1146 (Umberg D)   Civil procedure: electronic filing, trial delays, and remote depositions.
Summary:  This bill would require a party represented by counsel, who has appeared in an action or proceeding, to accept electronic service of a notice or document that may be served by mail, express mail, overnight delivery, or facsimile transmission. The bill would require a party represented by counsel, upon the request of any party who has appeared in an action or proceeding and who provides an electronic service address and a copy of this rule, to electronically serve the requesting party with any notice or document that may be served by mail, express mail, overnight delivery, or facsimile transmission.

SB 1383 (Jackson D)   Unlawful employment practice: family leave.
Summary: This bill would expand the California Family Rights Act to cover all employers with 5 or more employees and to additionally allow employees to use unpaid job protected leave to care for a domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law who has a serious health condition.

SB 1399 (Durazo D)   Employment: garment manufacturing.
Summary: Current law makes garment manufacturers liable for guaranteeing payment of wages to employees of their contractors. This bill would expand the definition of garment manufacturing to include dying, altering a garment’s design, and affixing a label on a garment. The bill would prohibit any employee engaged in the performance of garment manufacturing to be paid by the piece or unit, or by piece rate, except as specified.