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 263 (Rodriguez) – Emergency Medical Services Workers “Bill of Rights” – Hearing postponed.
AB 326 (Salas) – Barbering and Cosmetology: Physical/Sexual Abuse Training – Passed the Assembly Business and Professions Committee (16-0); now moves to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
AB 387 (Thurmond) – Minimum Wage: Health Professionals: Interns – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee (5-2); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 543 (Chen) – Employment: Resident Apartment Manager Wages – Hearing postponed.
AB 569 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Discrimination: Reproductive Health – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee (5-2); now moves to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
AB 815 (Cooper) – Farm Labor Contractors – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee (7-0); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 831 (Patterson) – Tax Credits: Compliance – Hearing postponed.
AB 912 (Obernolte) – California Small Business Regulatory Fairness Act – Passed the Assembly Jobs Committee (6-0); now moves to the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.
AB 978 (Limón) – OSHA IIPPs – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee (5-1); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 1066 (Aguiar-Curry) – Prevailing Wage: Tree Removal – Passed the Assembly Labor Committee (6-1); now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 201 (Skinner) – HEERA (Research Assistants) – Passed the Senate PERS Committee (3-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 219 (Wiener) – LGBT Long-Term Care Facility Resident’s Bill of Rights – Passed the Senate Human Services Committee (3-1); now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
SB 258 (Lara) – Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 – Passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee (5-2); now moves to the Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations.
SB 550 (Pan) – Public School Employment: Attorney’s Fees – Passed the Senate PERS Committee (3-2); now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Assembly Judiciary Committee – April 4, 2017 (Tuesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 437
AB 326 (Salas) – Barbering and Cosmetology: Physical/Sexual Abuse Training – Requires the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to require an applicant for a license to take a one-hour training on physical and sexual abuse awareness (including domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and elder abuse).
AB 889 (Stone) – “Secret” Settlements – Prohibits court orders or settlements that keep secret certain information related to the existence of a danger to the public health or safety, except pursuant to a court order based upon independent findings, as specified. Broad language and definitions in the bill would likely make it applicable to employment actions.
Senate Judiciary Committee – April 4, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 112
SB 63 (Jackson) – New Parent Leave – This bill would provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected family leave to bond with a new child for employees that work for employers with 20 or more employees (as opposed to CFRA, which applies to employers with 50 or more employees). This bill is similar to the author’s SB 654, which was vetoed last year by Governor Brown. Notably, that bill only provided for six weeks of job-protected leave, whereas SB 63 would authorize up to 12 weeks. This bill has been designated a “job killer” by the California Chamber of Commerce.
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 Transportation Committee – April 4, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.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).
Senate Labor Committee – April 5, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:30 a.m. – Room 2040
SB 482 (Stone) – Sleep Time: Domestic Work Employees – This bill is brought in response to concerns over the Mendiola v. CPS Security Solutions decision and would authorize a live-in domestic work employee to enter into a written agreement with the employer to exclude from compensable “hours worked” a regularly scheduled period of not more than 8 hours. If the sleep period were interrupted by an emergency, only time spent working during the emergency would constitute hours worked. Since the Mendiola decision was issued, the home health care industry has expressed significant concerns about how the issue of compensable sleep time would impact their industry and customers.
