Sacramento lawmakers are debating a broad range of bills that would impact employers. The Assembly and Senate have until Sept. 12, 2003, to pass measures, and Gov. Davis must sign or veto them by Oct. 12, 2003. Here’s a look at key proposals on the table.
Arbitration
AB 1715 invalidates mandatory arbitration agreements for claims covered by the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Harassment and Discrimination
AB 18 expands state employers’ ability to discipline employees for harassing other employees or members of the public.
AB 76 reverses a recent court ruling that employers aren’t liable for harassment of employees by clients or customers.
AB 196 prohibits bias and harassment based on actual or perceived gender.
AB 274 makes it easier for an employee to prove retaliation if their employer takes an adverse action within 90 days after the employee exercises rights under the Labor Code.
AB 1582 prohibits subjecting any employee to abusive conduct.
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AB 1617 details the reasonable steps an employer should take to investigate harassment claims, including using an experienced investigator and taking appropriate corrective action.
Health and Safety
AB 572 strengthens protections for workers who complain about safety violations and increases penalties for retaliation.
Healthcare Coverage
AB 1527, AB 1528, and SB 2 declare the Legislature’s intent to ensure universal healthcare coverage for working Californians by requiring employers to provide health coverage to employees or pay a fee for purposes of providing such universal coverage.
AB 293 permits small employers to allow full-time employees to work up to five extra hours a week, with the extra earnings used to defray the employees’ health coverage contribution amount.
Leave
AB 1327 exempts small businesses from the new Family Temporary Disability Insurance (FTDI) program.
SB 478 requires employers to allow an employee who is a crime victim or related to a victim time off to attend judicial proceedings related to the crime.
Privacy
AB 7 expands restrictions on a business’s use or display of Social Security numbers by prohibiting the use of disguised SSNs, such as those created by transposing the numerals in an individual’s SSN.
AB 46 removes the requirement that payroll statements show the employee’s SSN.
Wage and Hour
AB 223 makes it harder for employers to recover attorney’s fees arising from wage and hour appeals if the employee recovers any amount of money from the appeal.
AB 244 would exempt employers with fewer than 25 employees from state overtime pay requirements.
AB 276 increases fines and civil penalties for various Labor Code violations, including the failure to pay wages or minimum wage.
AB 1093 requires the state and state contractors to pay a living wage of at least $10/hour if health insurance is provided or $12/hour without.
AB 1133 imposes an automatic penalty equal to 100 percent of unpaid wages for every six months an employer doesn’t pay a judgment for such wages.
AB 1721 requires employers who willfully and intentionally violated wage and hour rules to post workplace notices of the violations.
SB 57 requires that the minimum wage be automatically adjusted annually based on the California Consumer Price Index.
SB 586 requires employers to pay a 1 percent penalty on all unpaid wage awards.
Workers’ Compensation
Numerous workers’ comp measures are on the table this year. Here’s a sampling:
AB 1480 authorizes employers to ask job applicants about previous workers’comp fraud convictions, and shortens the time period for employers to make payments for medical treatments.
AB 1215 allows workers’ comp insurers access to Employment Development Department quarterly wage and withholding reports to confirm payroll information reported to the insurer for the purpose of calculating premiums.
AB 1643 creates a new category of workers—contract service workers—in addition to the existing categories of employee and independent contractor, for purposes of workers’ compensation. The bill creates a presumption that contract service workers are not employees.
SB 354 doubles the fines for workers’ comp fraud.
SB 366 raises the bar for establishing that a psychiatric injury is work-related.
SB 1010 repeals a law enacted last year requiring a temporary agency that supplies workers to a licensed contractor to pay workers’ comp premiums based on the contractor’s experience modification rating.
Miscellaneous
AB 1060 makes it a crime for an employer to obtain a life insurance policy on an employee without the employee’s advance written consent.
AB 1223 repeals the “Cal-WARN” mass layoff notice law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2003.
SBX1 1 suspends a variety of recent employment-related bills pending recovery of the California economy.
SB 595 aims to combat unemployment insurance fraud by authorizing the Employment Development Department to send more frequent reports to employers about activity in their unemployment accounts.
SB 777 expands whistleblower protections for employees who report state or federal law violations and requires a workplace posting about these rights.