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.

Busy Weeks Ahead!

The next two weeks represent one of the “crunch times” in the legislative process, as many of the more controversial labor and employment proposals will have their first hearing in policy committee.  From the “opportunity to work” proposal, to a workplace immigration measure, to a bill increasing the exempt salary threshold under California law – these bills and many more will have their first test this week.  What stays alive and what dies?  Check back here to find out!

Senate Appropriations Committee – April 17, 2017 (Monday) – 10:00 a.m. – Room 4203

SB 158 (Monning) – Commercial Driver’s License: Education - This bill would require DMV to adopt regulations related to entry-level driver training requirements for commercial drivers, including minimum hours of behind-the-wheel training (30 hours for a class A license, 15 hours for a class B license).

SB 490 (Bradford) – Hair Salons: Commission Wages – This bill is brought in response to AB 1513 regarding piece rate wages and concerns that have been expressed by the salon industry.  This bill provides that wages paid to licensed employees, when paid as a percentage or a flat sum portion paid to the employer by the client, constitute “commissions”, provided that the employee is paid a regular hourly rate of at least two times the state minimum wage.

SB 621 (Bradford) – Overtime Compensation – Private School Teachers – This bill is a follow-up to AB 2230 (Chu) from last year, which established a new earnings standard for designating private school teachers as exempt employees (de-coupled from the “twice the state minimum wage” standard).  This bill simply clarifies an ambiguity in the law by specifying a proportional salary applicable to part-time teachers.

Assembly Business & Professions Committee – April 18, 2017 (Tuesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 4202

AB 238 (Steinorth) – Medical Cannabis: Distributors: Employment – Prohibits a cannabis distributor from being denied a license on the basis that they employ individuals who are not party to a collective bargaining agreement.

Assembly Health Committee – April 18, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 4202

AB 1461 (Thurmond) – Food Delivery Enterprises – This bill, for purposes of existing law related to mandated food handler cards, defines a “food facility” to include a business organized for profit to receive food orders and fulfill those orders, if the employee works with unpackaged food.  This bill is aimed at food delivery services (such as Blue Apron).  It is sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and appears aimed at innovative food delivery enterprises that labor groups perceive as a threat to traditional grocery stores.

Senate Judiciary Committee – April 18, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 112

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 225 (Stern) - Human Trafficking: Hotels and Motels – Revises a specified human trafficking notice that certain establishments are required to post to include the ability to text certain hotlines, and makes other minor changes.

SB 270 (Atkins) – Human Trafficking: Hotels and Motels – Requires a hotel or motel that provides lodging services in the state to train its employees who are likely to interact with victims of human trafficking in recognizing the signs of human trafficking and how to report these signs to the appropriate law enforcement agency.  This bill is similar to AB 1942 (C. Garcia) from last year, which was held under submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 306 (Hertzberg) – Retaliation – This bill dramatically revises retaliation claim procedures, and reflects language similar to that which has been proposed by Governor Jerry Brown in a budget trailer bill.  Among other things, this bill authorizes the Labor Commissioner to petition the court for injunctive relief (such as reinstating the employee) before completing an investigation and determining whether a violation has occurred.  The bill also requires the employer to pay attorneys’ fees and costs if the Labor Commissioner prevails in an enforcement action.

Assembly Labor Committee – April 19, 2017 (Wednesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 447

AB 5 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – “Opportunity to Work Act” – Based on similar proposals adopted recently in San Francisco and San Jose, this bill requires employers with 10 or more employees in the state to offer additional hours of work to part-time employees before hiring an additional employee or subcontractor (even through a staffing agency or similar entity).

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

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 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.  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 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 identical to another bill introduced this year, AB 1477 (Brough).  Both bills are similar to AB 1383 (Jones) from last year, which failed passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

AB 442 (Frazier) – OSHA Liability: Small Businesses and Microbusinesses – Prohibits Cal/OSHA from commencing an enforcement action for any nonserious violation where the employer is a small business (100 or fewer employees with $10 million or less in gross receipts) or a microbusiness (25 or fewer employees with $2.5 million or less in gross receipts), without first giving the employer written notice and 30 days to correct the violation.

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 543 (Chen) – Employment: Resident Apartment Manager Wages – Provides that if an employer does not charge a resident apartment manager rent, the employer may (by written agreement) apply up to one-half of the fair market value of the apartment towards their minimum wage obligation without violating provisions of the IWC Wage Orders related to credit or charges for lodging.

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 817 (Flora) – Emergency Medical Services: Rest or Recovery Periods – This bill, brought in response to the recent Augustus v. ABM Security Services case, provides that an employer providing emergency medical services may require employees to monitor and respond to pagers, radios, station alert boxes, intercoms, cell phones, or other communication methods during rest or recovery periods, without penalty.  The bill provides that breaks interrupted for emergency response purposes shall be rescheduled, and provides that the bill is declaratory of existing law.  Contrast this bill with AB 263 (Rodriguez), discussed above.

AB 1099 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Tips: Gig Economy – This bill requires an employer who allows a patron to pay for services by debit or credit card to also accept a debit or credit card for payment of gratuity, payable not later than the next regular payday.  Recent amendments limit the bill to the following employers: hotels, car washes, licensed barbershops and salons (including nail salons), massage establishments, restaurants, and “gig employers” that use online platforms to connect customers with services.  It is also likely that this bill will be used as a vehicle for broader proposals related to the “gig” economy, such as the author’s unsuccessful AB 1727 from last year, which would have allowed gig economy workers to organize. This bill is definitely one to watch.

AB 1174 (Harper) – Right To Work – Following trends in other states and a push by Republicans in Congress, this bill would establish California as a “right-to-work” state, prohibiting an employee from being required (as a condition of employment) from being a member or contributing financial support to a union.

 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.

AB 1425 (Kalra) – Apprentices – Requires contractors to provide specified contract information to the apprenticeship committee for each applicable craft or trade in the area of the public works project within 10 days of the execution of a contact (or not later than the first day work begins).  This bill also provides that a contractor or subcontractor that knowingly commits four or more apprenticeship violations in a three-year period shall be ineligible to bid on a public works contract for one year.

AB 1503 (Aguiar-Curry) – Farm Labor Contractors – This bill exempts from farm labor contracting licensing and registration requirements a nonprofit organization for purposes of administering an accredited apprenticeship program.

AB 1548 (Fong) – Cal/OSHA Penalties – Current law authorizes certain public entities (such as school districts) to apply for a refund of Cal/OSHA civil penalties if certain conditions are met.  This bill would extend that ability to other public entities, including cities, counties and special districts.

AB 1556 (Stone) – Pregnancy Disability Discrimination – Amends provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act related to pregnancy disability discrimination and leave to delete the terms “female person” and “female employee” and replace them with gender neutral terms.  This bill is sponsored by Equality California, who states the following as rationale for the bill: “These changes ensure that transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people are reflected in these protections and know that they can rely on them to meet their health needs if they become pregnant or have related medical conditions during the course of their employment.”

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.