Mariko Yoshihara
The California Legislature begins its new 2-year legislative session on December 3rd, with the largest Democratic supermajority it has had in decades. Riding the “blue wave” this past midterm election, which flipped dozens of house congressional seats from red to blue, California Democrats also picked up several seats in both houses of the state Legislature. Assembly Democrats will add five new members to their roster, giving them an astounding three quarters majority in the 80-member body (Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon is coining it a “gigamajority”). Senate Democrats will add three more members to their caucus, giving them control of 29 of the 40 senate seats.
This historic victory is indeed a reason to celebrate; however, passing strong, progressive labor and employment legislation this next session will not be guaranteed. Despite the plethora of Democrats taking office this new session, the more moderate, employer-friendly Democrats have expanded their voting bloc in both houses as well. As explained by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, “You have Democrats from very purple, moderate districts, and they may be more liberal than their Republican predecessors. But I don’t see them radically shifting on many issues. They will continue to reflect their districts.” Still, we are optimistic about this new legislative session and our ability to pass strong, pro-worker legislation in the upcoming year and to secure the support on the issues we care about from our newly elected Governor, Gavin Newsom.
Elected officials will be getting to work right away, with lawmakers introducing a slew of legislation on their first day of session. We can expect to see several pieces of legislation addressing the recent California Supreme Court decision, Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court, which adopted the simple ABC test to determine whether a worker has been misclassified as an independent contractor. Business groups have already declared the Dynamex ruling as their number one priority this legislative session and have been mounting a vigorous, highly-funded campaign to pressure lawmakers to limit or suspend the court’s (notably unanimous) decision. CELA will be working diligently with our labor allies to take on the business lobby and ensure that the Dynamex ruling is preserved and that the ABC test comprehensively protects workers who are misclassified and exploited, especially in today’s “gig” economy.
This session we can also expect to see renewed attempts for bills previously vetoed under outgoing Governor Jerry Brown. For example, one of our co-sponsored bills from last year, AB 1870, which would have extended the filing deadline for claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act from one to three years, will be reintroduced this session. In addition, Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher plans to reintroduce several workers’ rights bills that failed under Brown, like AB 3080, which would have prohibited employers from retaliating against workers who refuse to sign arbitration agreements. In this new session, we also plan to work with our coalition partners in the California Work and Family Coalition and the Stronger California Advocates Network, to continue to make progress on strengthening our equal pay and family leave laws.
Over the next couple months, our legislative committee will be finalizing our legislative agenda, advising on new labor and employment bills that will be introduced, and tracking the inevitable varied attempts by the business lobby to attack workers’ rights, like the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Legislators will have until February 22, 2019 to introduce all new legislation for the first year of this new legislative session.