Mariko Yoshihara
On January 7th, Gavin Newsom was sworn in as the state’s 40th governor, heralding a new era of progressive leadership in California. As reflected in the Governor’s recent budget proposal, the administration will be focusing on early child education, paid parental leave, college scholarships, health care coverage for undocumented residents, work force training, and housing. The governor’s budget proposal showed promising signs for some of CELA’s priority issues, such as boosting trial court funding and strengthening workplace policies and protections for working families. Significantly, the governor’s budget provided for $327 million in new General Fund spending for the judicial branch, including $275.2 million in new funding to support trial court programs, facilities, and operations. In addition, we will be teaming up again with Senator Jackson to help coordinate with the Newsom administration on policy proposals to strengthen California’s family leave laws and improve access to Paid Family Leave benefits.
CELA’s legislative priorities this year will also include further strengthening our equal pay and sexual harassment laws, attacking forced arbitration, preserving the California Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex, and going after unscrupulous employers who don’t pay their workers on time. By February 22, the deadline for all legislation to be introduced, we will have solidified our legislative agenda for the year and will have a clear picture of all the bill proposals the legislature and advocates will be working on for this year.
13th Annual CELA Lobby Day – REGISTER NOW
Be sure to join us on March 6th, when we come together for our 13th annual Lobby Day in Sacramento. Our members will be taking our legislative agenda to the halls of the State Capitol, meeting with lawmakers and discussing CELA’s top legislative priorities. This will be an exciting opportunity for CELA members to meet and network with legislators and their staffs. New to CELA, new to politics, or new to both? No problem! We will have a comprehensive Pre-Lobby Day Webinar to get everyone up to speed on the legislative process and the workers’ rights legislation we will be discussing in our lobby day meetings. CLICK HERE to register.
Bills We Are Tracking
Below is a partial list of bills we are tracking and actively working on. If you have experience or feedback on any of the bills listed below, please email mariko@cela.org. For a complete list of bills we are tracking, please visit the CELA website.
AB 51 (Gonzalez D) Forced Arbitration
Summary: Would prohibit a person from, as a condition of employment, continued employment, the receipt of any employment-related benefit, or as a condition of entering into a contractual agreement, prohibiting an applicant for employment, employee, or independent contractor from disclosing to any person an instance of sexual harassment that the employee or independent contractor suffers, witnesses, or discovers in the workplace or in the performance of the contract, or otherwise opposing any lawful practice, or from exercising any right or obligation or participating in any investigation or proceeding with respect to unlawful harassment or discrimination.
SB 17 (Umberg D) Civil discovery: sanctions
Summary: Current law authorizes a court to impose sanctions on a party, person, or attorney in connection with conduct that is a misuse of the discovery process in a civil action, as specified. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would require a court to impose sanctions against any party, person, or attorney who engages in conduct that is a misuse of the discovery process in a civil action.
SB 41 (Hertzberg D) Civil actions: damages
Summary: Current law authorizes a person who suffers a loss or harm to himself or herself, or his or her property, from an unlawful act or omission of another to recover monetary compensation, known as damages, from the person in fault. Current law specifies the measure of damages as the amount which will compensate for the loss or harm, whether anticipated or not, and requires the damages awarded be reasonable.This bill would prohibit the estimation, measure, or calculation of civil damages from being based on, or considering, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
AB 9 (Reyes D) Employment discrimination: filing deadline
Summary: Current law authorizes a person claiming to be aggrieved by an alleged unlawful practice to file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing within one year from the date upon which the unlawful practice occurred, unless otherwise specified. This bill would extend the above-described period to 3 years for complaints alleging employment discrimination, as specified.
AB 196 (Gonzalez D) Paid family leave
Summary: This bill would state the Legislature’s intent to enact legislation that would expand the paid family leave program in order to provide a 100% wage replacement benefit for workers earning $100,000 or less annually.
SB 135 (Jackson D) Disability compensation: paid family leave
Summary: Would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would strengthen California’s family leave laws and to create more equitable access to California’s family leave programs, as specified.
AB 170 (Gonzalez D) Employment: sexual harassment: liability
Summary: Would require a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for harassment for all workers supplied by that labor contractor.
AB 171 (Gonzalez D) Employment: sexual harassment
Summary: Would amend the Labor Code to prohibit an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee because of the employee’s status as a victim of sexual harassment, as defined by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. The bill would establish a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation based on the employee’s status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, or stalking if an employer takes specific actions within 90 days following the date that the victim provides notice to the employer or the employer has actual knowledge of the status.
AB 5 (Gonzalez D) Worker status: independent contractors
Summary: Current law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903 (Dynamex), creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee. Current law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the “ABC” test, to establish that a worker is independent contractor. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to include provisions within this bill would codify the decision in the Dynamex case and clarify its application.
AB 71 (Melendez R) Employment standards: independent contractors and employees
Summary: Current case law establishes a three-part test, known as the “ABC” test, for determining whether a worker is considered an independent contractor for purposes of specified wage orders. This bill would, instead, require a determination of whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor to be based on a specific multifactor test, including whether the person to whom service is rendered has the right to control the manner and means of accomplishing the result desired, and other identified factors.
AB 233 (Cooley D) Insurance: independent contractors
Summary: Current case law requires a 3-part test to establish that a worker is an independent contractor. This bill would clarify the application of the case law described above to persons licensed by the Department of Insurance to transact insurance in specified capacities by providing that those persons are not employees when they have entered into a written agreement with an insurer or organizational licensee that includes specified provisions, including that the worker is classified as an independent contractor, that each party has the right to terminate the agreement upon notice to the other party, and that the worker is responsible for the payment of necessary expenditures and applicable taxes.