Our weekly California Legislature “hot list” provides you with a preview of the bills that are up (as well as other important legislative action) the following week.

Recap of Legislative Bill Activity Last Week – The following bills were acted upon this past week:

AB 676 (Limón) – Child Care and Development: OSHA Training – Amended and referred to the Senate Rules Committee.

AB 1250 (Jones-Sawyer) – Contracts for Personal Services – Hearing postponed until July 12, 2017.

SB 258 (Lara) – Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee 5-1; now moves to the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxics Committee.

SB 306 (Hertzberg) – Retaliation – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee 5-2; now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 396 (Lara) – Harassment Training: Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sexual Orientation - Passed the Assembly Labor Committee 6-1; now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 418 (Hernandez) – Public Contracts: “Skilled and Trained Workforce” Requirements – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee 6-1; now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Senate Appropriations Committee – July 10, 2017 (Monday) – 10:00 a.m. – Room 4203

AB 55 (Thurmond) – Refineries­ – Existing law requires operators of refineries, when contracting out for construction and related work, to use a “skilled and trained workforce,” as defined.  However, that requirement does not apply to contracts awarded before January 1, 2014.  This bill requires a refinery operator who claims that exemption to file a copy of the contract with the administering agency.  In addition, existing law requires a worker, among other requirements, to have completed, within the prior 2 calendar years, at least 20 hours of approved advanced safety training for workers at high hazard facilities to qualify as a “skilled journeyperson” for purposes of performing this work.  This bill would instead require a worker to have completed, within the prior 4 calendar years, at least 20 hours of this approved advanced safety training.

AB 199 (Chu) – Public Works: Residential Projects – Defines “public works” for prevailing wage law purposes to include private residential projects built on private property that are built pursuant to an agreement with successors to redevelopment agencies.  As introduced, this bill would have applied prevailing wage requirements to almost all private residential construction.  After intense opposition, the bill has been amended to its current form, but this bill should continue to be watched closely.

AB 263 (Rodriguez) – Emergency Medical Services Workers “Bill of Rights” – Requires an employer that provides EMS services to authorize and permit its employees to take rest periods, and to provide meal periods.  Recent amendments provide that an employer may require employees to monitor pagers, radios, or similar equipment during such breaks, and makes special accommodations for air ambulances.  This bill also requires the Emergency Medical Services Authority annually to post specified information regarding violent incidents involving EMS providers in the performance of their duties.

AB 326 (Salas) – Barbering and Cosmetology: Physical and Sexual Abuse Awareness Training: Requires a health and safety course adopted by the board to include physical and sexual abuse awareness.

AB 402 (Thurmond) – OSHA: Plume – Requires Cal/OSHA to convene an advisory committee to develop a regulation requiring health facilities to evacuate or remove surgical “plume” through the use of a plume scavenging system.  This bill is similar to AB 2272 from last year, which was vetoed by Governor Brown.

AB 568 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – School and Community College: Paid Maternity Leave – Requires school districts and community colleges to provide at least 6 weeks of paid leave for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions.

AB 581 (McCarty) – Apprentices – Imposes certain recordkeeping requirements on apprenticeship programs that receive specified grant funds from the California Apprenticeship Council.  If the program is found to be using grant funds for purposes other than training apprentices, the program shall be ineligible to receive future grants and their registration may be rescinded.

AB 708 (Quirk-Silva) – OSHA: Responding Agency Notifications – Revises notice provisions that require specified first responders to notify Cal/OSHA after accidents involving specified injuries or death. 

AB 978 (Limón) – OSHA IIPPs – This bill requires employers, upon written request, to provide a copy of the written injury and illness prevention program (required under existing law) to an employee or authorized representative.  This bill is similar to AB 2895 from last year, which was not taken up on the Senate floor.

AB 1565 (Thurmond) – Overtime Salary Threshold – Provides that an executive, administrative or professional employee is exempt from overtime if they earn a monthly salary equivalent to $3,956 or twice the state minimum wage, whichever is higher.  As discussed here, this bill is a labor-supported response to the apparent demise (thus far) of the Obama Department of Labor effort to increase the salary threshold required for the overtime exemptions under federal law.

Senate Public Employment Committee – July 10, 2017 (Monday) – 2:00 p.m. – Room 2040

AB 168 (Eggman) – Salary History Information – Prohibits an employer from seeking salary history information about an applicant for employment.  This bill also requires an employer, upon reasonable request, to provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant for employment.  Previous legislative efforts in this regard have not been successful.

AB 530 (Cooper) – Public Employment: Peace Officers – Places unfair practice charges regarding peace officers under the jurisdiction of PERB (rather than superior court).

AB 1603 (Ridley-Thomas) – Meyers-Milias-Brown Act: Joint Employment – This bill, for purposes of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, adopts the NLRB’s M.B. Sturgis rule that a bargaining unit of solely and jointly employed employees may be appropriate and that employer consent to such a unit is not necessary.

Assembly Natural Resources Committee – July 10, 2017 (Monday) – 2:30 p.m. – Room 447

SB 49 (De León) – California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017 – Among other things, this bill prohibits a state agency that implements specified federal laws from amending or revising its rules and regulations in a manner that is less stringent in its protection of workers’ rights or worker safety than standards established by federal law in existence as of January 1, 2016.

Assembly Judiciary Committee – July 11, 2017 (Tuesday) – 8:00 a.m. – Room 437

SB 49 (De León) – California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017 – Among other things, this bill prohibits a state agency that implements specified federal laws from amending or revising its rules and regulations in a manner that is less stringent in its protection of workers’ rights or worker safety than standards established by federal law in existence as of January 1, 2016.

SB 219 (Wiener) – LGBT Long-Term Care Facility Resident’s Bill of Rights – This bill would prohibit skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and residential care facilities from taking specified actions based on a resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status, including refusing to use a resident’s preferred name or pronoun.

SB 295 (Monning) – Farm Labor Contractors – This bill provides that violations of specified sexual harassment training requirements applicable to farm labor contractors are violations of the Labor Code and subject to citation by the Labor Commissioner.  The bill also requires that sexual harassment training for each agricultural employee be in a language understood by that employee.

Senate Judiciary Committee – July 11, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 112

AB 46 (Cooper) – Gender Pay Inequality – Provides that the California Equal Pay Act applies to both public and private employers.

AB 353 (Voepel) – Veterans’ Preference – Hiring Policy – Authorizes a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans’ preference employment policy to give a voluntary preference for hiring or retaining a veteran.  The granting of such a preference, in and of itself, shall not be deemed to violate local or state employment discrimination laws.  This bill is similar to AB 1383 (Jones) from last year, which failed passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

AB 450 (Chiu) – Immigration Worksite Enforcement Actions – This bill puts California employers right in the middle of the national immigration debate by (1) requiring them to demand warrants and subpoenas from ICE prior to immigration worksite enforcement actions, and (2) requiring them to notify the Labor Commissioner prior to such actions (including I-9 self-audits), who in turn is authorized to conduct a wall-to-wall audit.  Read more about this bill here.

AB 569 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Discrimination: Reproductive Health – Prohibits employers from taking adverse employment action against an employee based on his or her reproductive health decisions, including the use of any drug, device, or medical service related to reproductive health by the employee or a dependent.  This bill also prohibits employers from requiring workers to sign a code of conduct or similar document that purports to deny an employee the right to make his or her own reproductive health care decisions.

 AB 1008 (McCarty) – “Ban the Box” – This bill would enact a statewide version of the “ban the box” ordinance recently adopted in Los Angeles.  Among other things, the bill prohibits employers from asking about or considering conviction history of an applicant until a conditional offer of employment has been made, and requires employers to provide certain information to applicants and allow for a 10-day opportunity for the applicant to respond.

Assembly Environmental Safety Committee – July 11, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 444

SB 258 (Lara) – Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 - This bill would require manufacturers of “cleaning products” to disclose chemical ingredients and other information.  However, the bill also impacts employers by requiring them provide specified information to employees about cleaning products used in the workplace.

Senate Governance and Finance Committee – July 12, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:30 a.m. – Room 112

AB 1250 (Jones-Sawyer) – Contracts for Personal Services – Limits the ability of counties and cities to contract for personal services by imposing significant hurdles, including a cost/benefit analysis. 

Senate Labor Committee – July 12, 2017 (Tuesday) – 9:30 a.m. – Room 2040

AB 1066 (Aguiar-Curry) – Prevailing Wage: Tree Removal – Amends the definition of “public works” for purposes of state prevailing wage law to include tree removal.

AB 1080 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Public Contracts: Bid Preferences: Employee Health Care Expenditures – Requires state agencies awarding public works and other specified contracts (including package delivery and custodial or janitorial services) to provide a 5 percent bid preference to a bidder or subcontractor that provided “credible health care coverage” during the 12 months preceding submission of the bid.

AB 1209 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Gender Pay Differentials – Requires employers with 250 or more employees to collect specified information on gender pay differentials.  The information must be published on a public website, submitted to the Secretary of State, and updated annually.