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 199 (Chu) – Public Works: Residential Projects – Placed on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.
AB 450 (Chiu) – Immigration Worksite Enforcement Actions - Passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee (8-3); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 569 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Discrimination: Reproductive Health – Passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee (9-1); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 815 (Cooper) – Farm Labor Contractors – Placed on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.
AB 978 (Limón) – OSHA IIPPs – Passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee (11-4); now moves to the Assembly floor.
AB 1066 (Aguiar-Curry) – Prevailing Wage: Tree Removal – Placed on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file.
AB 1080 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Public Contracts: Bid Preferences: Employee Health Care Expenditures – Passed the Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee (7-0); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1102 (Rodriguez) – Health Facilities: Whistleblower Protections – Passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee (11-0); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1700 (Cooper) – Cannabis: Cal/OSHA Training – Passed the Assembly Business and Professions Committee (12-4); passed the Assembly Labor Committee (6-1); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1710 (Committee on Veterans Affairs) – Prohibited Discrimination Against Service Members – Passed the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee (9-0); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 63 (Jackson) – New Parent Leave – Placed on the Senate Appropriations suspense file.
SB 158 (Monning) – Commercial Driver’s License: Education – Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee (7-0); now moves to the Senate floor.
SB 219 (Wiener) – LGBT Long-Term Care Facility Resident’s Bill of Rights – Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee (5-2); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 258 (Lara) – Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 295 (Monning) – Farm Labor Contractors – Placed on the Senate Appropriations suspense file.
SB 306 (Hertzberg) – Retaliation – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 418 (Hernandez) – Public Works: “De Minimis” – Passed the Senate floor (27-10); now moves to the Assembly.
SB 490 (Bradford) – Hair Salons: Commission Wages – Passed the Senate floor (37-0); now moves to the Assembly.
SB 524 (Vidak) – Good Faith Defense – Failed passage in the Senate Labor Committee (1-2).
SB 562 (Lara) – The Healthy California Act (Single Payer) – Passed the Senate Health Committee (5-2); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 603 (Glazer) – BART Strikes – Hearing canceled at the request of the author.
SB 604 (Glazer) – BART Strikes – Hearing canceled at the request of the author.
SB 621 (Bradford) – Overtime Compensation – Private School Teachers – Passed the Senate floor (38-0); now moves to the Assembly.
SB 772 (Leyva) – Cal/OSHA Regulations – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Assembly Floor (the following bills are eligible to be taken up at any time):
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 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.
Senate Floor (the following bills are eligible to be taken up at any time):
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).
Senate Appropriations Committee – May 1, 2017 (Monday) – 10:00 a.m. – Room 4203
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.
Assembly Privacy & Consumer Protection Committee – May 2, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 126
AB 889 (Stone) – “Secret” Settlements – Amendments were made to this bill that appear to clarify that it does not apply to employment claims. However, business groups are still opposed because the standard required to obtain a protective order (such as to protect trade secrets) is too high and based only upon an allegation of a claim.
Assembly Appropriations Committee – May 3, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 4202
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 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. A redacted copy of the contract would be a public record, available for inspection by the public.
AB 326 (Salas) – Barbering and Cosmetology: Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Training – Requires the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to require an applicant for a license to take a one-hour training on domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.
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 387 (Thurmond) – Minimum Wage: Health Professionals: Interns – Provides that state minimum wage law applies to employers that employ a person engaged in a period of supervised work experience to satisfy requirements for licensure, registration, or certification as an “allied health professional,” as defined.
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 831 (Patterson) – Tax Credits: Compliance – Provides a tax credit for qualified small businesses of $25 for each hour spent on compliance with state regulations and laws (not to exceed $1,200).
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 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.
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.”
Assembly Labor Committee – May 3, 2017 (Wednesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 447
AB 281 (Salas) – PAGA – As introduced, this bill would have made significant changes to the standing and right-to-cure provisions under PAGA. However, recent amendments limit the bill to only extend the time frame for the existing right to cure certain violations under PAGA from 33 to 65 days. In light of opposition from labor groups and plaintiff attorneys, it is likely that the author is attempting to move a “watered-down” version of this bill forward as a vehicle for further discussions about potential PAGA reform. However, it remains to be seen whether the committee will allow even this bill to move forward.
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 submit evidence of mitigation or rehabilitation.
AB 1701 (Thurmond) – Labor-Related Liabilities: Original Contractor – This bill, sponsored by the California Conference of Carpenters, would make a general contractor on a construction project liable for wages or fringe benefits not paid by a subcontractor at any tier of the project. The bill would also provide for a civil action to enforce this liability.
