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 260 (Santiago) – Human Trafficking: Hotels and Motels – Passed the Assembly Floor (71-0); now moves to the Senate.

AB 353 (Voepel) – Veterans’ Preference – Hiring Policy – Passed the Assembly Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (10-0); now moves to the Assembly Labor Committee.

AB 676 (Limón) – Child Care and Development: OSHA Training – Passed the Assembly Human Services Committee (5-1); now moves to Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 63 (Jackson) – New Parent Leave – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

SB 295 (Monning) – Farm Labor Contractors – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

SB 391 (Vidak) – Piece-Rate Compensation – Hearing postponed.

SB 418 (Hernandez) – Public Works: “De Minimis” – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 482 (Stone) – Sleep Time: Domestic Work Employees – Hearing postponed.

SB 524 (Vidak) – Good Faith Defense – Hearing postponed.

Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee – March 27, 2017 (Monday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 126

AB 831 (Patterson) – Tax Credits: Compliance – Provides a tax credit for qualified small businesses of $5,000 or $25 for each hour spent on compliance with state regulations and laws.

Senate PERS Committee – March 27, 2017 (Monday) – 2:00 p.m. – Room 2040

SB 201 (Skinner) – HEERA – Makes student employees, whose employment is contingent on their status as students, of the UC, CSU, and Hastings College of Law, “employees” for purposes of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA).

SB 550 (Pan) – Public School Employment: Attorney’s Fees – Provides that if an employee organization prevails in an action alleging that a public school employer failed to provide wages or benefits required by state law, the employer shall pay the employee organization’s reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses.

Assembly Jobs Committee – March 28, 2017 (Tuesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 127

AB 912 (Obernolte) – California Small Business Regulatory Fairness Act – Requires state agencies to assist small businesses in complying with the law.  This bill also requires state agencies to provide for the reduction (or waiver) of civil penalties for small businesses based upon mitigating factors, including, but not limited to, that the violation did not impose an imminent health, safety or environmental threat.

Assembly Business & Professions Committee – March 28, 2017 (Tuesday) – 10:00 a.m. – Room 4202

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).

Senate Human Services Committee – March 28, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 3191

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.

Senate Environmental Quality Committee – March 29, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:30 a.m. – Room 3191

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 to identify cleaning products and list the ingredients of products by labeling any container used in the workplace into which a cleaning product is transferred.

Assembly Labor and Employment Committee – March 29, 2017 (Wednesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 447

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 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 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 two-thirds 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 569 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – Discrimination: Reproductive Health – Prohibits employers from taking adverse employment action against an employee based on 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 waiver that purports to deny an employee the right to make his or her own reproductive health care decisions.

AB 815 (Cooper) – Farm Labor Contractors – Requires the Labor Commissioner to ensure that the Fresno DLSE office has sufficient resources for duties of the Farm Labor Contractor Special Enforcement Unit.

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