Change is constant when it comes to California labor and employment law. Employers should keep an eye on the following legislation currently pending in Sacramento.
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California Legislative Update
By Christopher W. Olmsted
Change is constant when it comes to California labor and employment law. Employers should keep an eye on the following legislation currently pending in Sacramento.
More Flexible Alternative Workweek Schedules
Current California law permits employers to adopt an “alternative workweek” schedule, which typically involves four ten hour days instead of five eight hour days. If properly instituted, the employer need not pay overtime for the ninth and tenth hours. Current law requires 2/3 of employees in a work unit to vote in favor of the schedule, and it is fairly tricky to implement. SB 187 would allow individual employees to volunteer for the 4/10 schedule without the need for a work unit vote.
Mandatory Sick Pay
Mandatory sick pay is back on the legislative agenda. As reported last year here (http://www.barkerolmsted.com/news/legal-updates/newsletter0040.php) and here (http://www.barkerolmsted.com/news/legal-updates/newsletter0068.php), the legislation was introduced last year but did not pass. This year’s bill, AB 1000, is identical. It provides that an employee who works in California for 7 or more days in a calendar year is entitled to paid sick time days. The paid leave would accrue at a rate of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The law would apply to all employers. The bill would require employers to provide paid sick time days, upon the request of the employee, for diagnosis, care, or treatment of health conditions of the employee or an employee’s family member, or for leave related to domestic violence or sexual assault.
The bill has passed in the Labor and Employment and Judiciary committees in the Assembly. We will continue to track the bill’s progress.
California Ledbetter
On January 29th President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law. As reported here (http://www.barkerolmsted.com/news/legal-updates/newsletter0104.php), the federal legislation reversed a U.S. Supreme Court case titled Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. by allowing employees to sue at the time of an alleged discriminatory pay practice, or at any time thereafter if the employee is affected by that compensation decision. The Supreme Court had ruled that the employee only had 180 days after the initial pay decision to sue.
Not to be outdone, California legislators have introduced AB 793, a Golden State version of the Ledbetter Act. But it is a deluxe version. It would apply not only to discriminatory pay practices under California’s more expansive employment laws, but also any violation of the California Labor Code.
Lactation Accommodation
Labor Code sections 1030-1033 mandates every employer to provide a reasonable amount of time to accommodate expressing of breast milk and to make reasonable efforts to provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a bathroom, in close proximity to the employees work area to express milk in private. The accommodation period is unpaid.
The law does not define “reasonable amount of time.” AB 514 would define it as twenty minutes, and require that it be taken every four hours, either before or after the employees’ regular 10 minute break (i.e. they would be entitled to two thirty minute breaks per eight hour shift). Moreover, the accommodation period would be paid time.
Other Legislation
AB 527 Payroll Records. In unpaid wage disputes before the Labor Commissioner, any one intentionally falsified payroll record would create a presumption that all payroll records are false.
AB 842 California WARN Act. This bill would expand the advance notice employers must give for mass layoffs from 60 to 90 days, and require the employer to provide various additional information to laid off workers.
AB 943. Credit reports. This bill would forbid employers from conducting credit check on employees unless “substantially job-related,” meaning that the position of the person for whom the report is sought has access to money, other assets, or confidential information, or is a manager.
AB 1001 Expands FEHA. This bill would expand FEHA to add familial status, such as single parent. Would also expand CFRA eligibility to care for a parent, a grandparent, and a parent-in-law.
SB 287, SB 380, SB 807 Meal Period clarification. These bills seek to clarify the rules regarding: the latest point in a shift for a meal period; time limits for recovering penalties; on-duty meal period agreements; waiver of meal periods.
More Legal Update articles.
Download entire May 2009 Legal Update in PDF format.
This article is intended as a brief overview of the law and are not intended to substitute as legal advice. Any questions or concerns regarding any statute or case law should be addressed to a licensed attorney. Copyright © 2009 by Barker Olmsted & Barnier, APLC. San Diego, California. All rights reserved.
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