Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. This bill would, for purposes of these provisions, require that these employees be employed on a regular, or full-time basis, but would eliminate the requirement that these employees be members of the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System or subject to the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937. The bill would also include local park rangers, community college police, and police of a school district among the public employees entitled to the above-described leave of absence. The bill would provide that the provisions pertaining to a leave of absence shall not apply to certain public safety personnel who are employees of the City and County of San Francisco. This bill contains other existing laws.

Existing law contains provisions that define unlawful discrimination and employment practices and establish procedures for an employee who has suffered discrimination or other unlawful practices, as defined, to file a complaint with the Fair Employment and Housing Department, or under certain circumstances, to bring a civil action against his or her employer. This bill would specify when a cause of action for unlawful discrimination or unlawful employment practice with respect to compensation accrues for determining whether a complaint was filed within statutory deadlines.
EG Notes: Oppose

Under existing law, the prevailing party, with certain exceptions, is entitled to an award of attorney's fees in an action brought for nonpayment of wages, fringe benefits, or health and welfare or pension fund contributions, or in an action brought for underpayment of the minimum wage or overtime compensation. This bill would add expert witness fees to the prevailing party in any such recovery. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

The Franchise Tax Board administers the taxes imposed under the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law. Existing law authorizes persons that are required to withhold taxes from recipients of income to require the recipients of the income to provide that person with the recipient's name and address. This bill would require the recipient of income to also provide the person paying the income with the payee's social security number or other taxpayer identification number if requested by the person paying the income. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

Under existing law, an alternative workweek schedule proposed by an employer may be adopted through a 2/3 majority vote of the employer's employees in a secret ballot. Existing law requires the employer to pay overtime compensation to employees who work more than their regularly scheduled hours under the alternative workweek. An employer must also make reasonable effort to find a work schedule that does not exceed 8 hours per day for employees who were eligible to vote in the election but are unable to work the alternative workweek hours. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Existing law requires that all wages be paid twice during each calendar month, that wages be paid immediately upon discharge, and that wages be paid within 72 hours if an employee quits, with certain exceptions. This bill would provide that for employees of temporary services employers, as defined, wages shall be paid weekly, or daily if an employee is assigned to a client on a day-to-day basis or to a client engaged in a trade dispute. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

Existing law requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the Department of Industrial Relations to issue a citation to an employer who it, upon investigation, believes has violated specified provisions related to employee health and safety. Existing law authorizes the division to issue a notice instead of a citation if the violations do not have a direct or immediate relationship to the health and safety of an employee; are of a general or regulatory nature; are not serious, repeated, or willful; and do not arise from a failure to abate. Existing law also authorizes the division to impose a civil penalty for the violation of specified provisions. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Existing law provides that an employer, with certain exceptions, may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment without giving 60 days' prior written notice to employees and the Employment Development Department and other local agencies, as well as complying with specified federal guidelines. This bill would also require notice to be given if an employer orders an offshoring, which is defined as the removal of an employer' s operations to a location outside the borders of the United States and increase the layoff notice period from 60 to 90 days. This bill would also require employers, when notice is given, to provide employees with information regarding benefits and services available to them once the notice of layoff is given. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

The E-Verify Program of the United States Department of Homeland Security, in partnership with the United States Social Security Administration, enables participating employers to use the program, on a voluntary basis, to verify that the employees they hire are authorized to work in the United States. This bill would prohibit the State of California from participating in any electronic employment verification system, as defined, unless required by federal law. The bill would also prohibit a county or municipality from requiring any employer to use an electronic employment verification system. This bill contains other existing laws.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment, and requires an employer to provide, or pay for all reasonable costs of, medical services necessary to care for, or relieve work-related injuries. Existing law defines an "employee" for purposes of those provisions to include, among other persons, all officers and members of boards of directors of quasi-public or private corporations while rendering actual service for the corporations for pay, except that when the officers and directors of the private corporation are the sole shareholders of the corporation, the corporation and the officers and directors shall come under the workers' compensation laws only by election, as provided. This bill would provide that an officer or director who is a sole shareholder holding less than 10% of the shares of the corporation shall be presumed to be an employee of the corporation, and would prohibit such an officer or director from excluding himself or herself from workers' compensation coverage required to be provided to other employees of the corporation, and from being subject to the specified election requirement. The bill would also provide that this presumption may be rebutted by the person or entity asserting the right to be excluded from those compensation requirements by demonstrating by a preponderance of evidence that the officer's or director's shareholder status is bona fide and not established for the purpose of avoiding those compensation requirements . This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, as amended in 2008, establishes a right for an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period (1) to care for a child who was born to, adopted by, or placed for foster care with, the employee, (2) to care for the employee's spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition, as defined, (3) because the employee is suffering from a serious health condition rendering him or her unable to perform the functions of the job, or (4) because of a qualifying exigency arising from the fact that the spouse, child, or parent of the employee is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call to active duty in the United States Armed Forces in support of a contingency operation. The amended federal act also establishes a right for an eligible employee who is the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin of a covered service member to take up to 26 workweeks of unpaid protected leave in a single 12-month period to care for that service member, or to take up to 26 workweeks in that single period to care for that service member and for other leave purposes under the federal act. This bill would conform the types of leave available under state law to the revised federal law and would expand the eligibility for the military service-related leave provisions to include an employee who is the grandparent, grandchild, or sibling of the service member. This bill contains other existing laws.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law requires the administrative director, until January 1, 2009, to establish, to the extent that funds are available for that purpose, the Return-to-Work Program to promote the early and sustained return to work of employees following a work-related injury or illness. Existing law also requires the administrative director to reimburse an eligible employer for expenses incurred to make workplace modifications to accommodate the employee's return to modified or alternative work, in accordance with specified requirements. Existing law requires the Director of Industrial Relations to establish and maintain a program to encourage, facilitate, and educate employers to provide early and sustained return to work after occupational injury or illness, and requires that the program include specified educational materials and guides, and training concerning the accommodation of injured employees and the prevention of reinjury. This bill would require the administrative director , in consultation with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, no later than September 30, 2009, to develop, make available, and publish a guide covering the Return-to-Work Program requirements, containing specified information. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment, and requires an employer to pay for all reasonable costs of medical services necessary to care for or relieve work-related injuries. Existing law requires every employer to establish a medical treatment utilization review process, in compliance with specified requirements, either directly or through its insurer or an entity with which the employer or insurer contracts for these services. Existing law requires that, in determining whether to approve, modify, delay, or deny requests by physicians prior to, retrospectively, or concurrent with the provisions of medical treatment services to employees, specified requirements be met. In that regard, existing law requires that, in cases where the review is retrospective, the treatment decision be communicated to the individual who received services, or the individual's designee, within 30 days of receipt of information that is reasonably necessary to make this determination. This bill would require that, in cases where the review is retrospective, the decision to modify, delay, or deny services be communicated to the individual who received services, or to the individual's designee, within 30 working days of receipt of information that is reasonably necessary to make this determination.

Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department to administer the state unemployment insurance and the disability compensation programs. Existing law requires the department, among other duties, to make unemployment compensation payments by a check or pay order that is permanently imprinted with a specified statement, as provided, and to make disability benefits payments by checks drawn on a specified bank, as provided. This bill would delete the requirement to include the imprinted statement on payments of unemployment compensation and disability benefits. This bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Federal law prohibits the employment of an individual who, if an alien, is neither an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States nor an alien otherwise authorized under federal law or by the federal Attorney General to be employed in the United States. Federal law establishes E-Verify as a free, online tool for participating employers to verify the employment eligibility of new employees and provides other methods for verifying the employment eligibility of new employees. This bill would require the state Attorney General, county counsel, or district attorney of a county in which the board of supervisors has not appointed a county counsel, to investigate a complaint alleging that an employer has intentionally employed an unauthorized alien. If the complaint is determined to not be false, then the state Attorney General or the county counsel or district attorney of a county, as applicable, would be required to notify specified local and federal entities of the unauthorized alien. The bill also would establish as a misdemeanor the intentional filing of a false complaint that alleges an employer has intentionally employed an unauthorized alien. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

Existing law provides that individuals with disabilities shall be entitled to full and equal access to specified facilities and places and other places to which the general public is invited, subject only to conditions and limitations established by law. Existing law provides that any person, firm, or corporation who denies or interferes with admittance to or enjoyment of those public facilities, or otherwise interferes with the rights of an individual with a disability under those provisions, is liable for specified damages. Existing law also allows any person who claims to be aggrieved by an alleged unlawful practice in violation of those provisions to file a verified complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing pursuant to certain provisions of law. This bill would require that, before filing a complaint as described above, a person deliver a notice to the person, firm, or corporation who is alleged to have denied or interfered with a right of access guaranteed under the above provisions. It would require that the notice specify the physical conditions that are alleged to deny or interfere with such a right of access. The bill would require the person, firm, or corporation receiving the notice to make a good faith effort to remedy any condition reasonably cited in the notice, and would prohibit an action for damages or any other remedy unless the person, firm, or corporation fails to take specified actions to remedy the condition.

Existing law provides for the establishment of employment training programs, and specifies those individuals that qualify as "eligible participants" in training programs. This bill would revise the definition of an eligible participant in training programs, as provided. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

Existing law requires the governing board of a school district that collects or deducts dues, agency fees, fair share fees, or any other fee or amount of money from a classified employee's salary for the purpose of transmitting the money to an employee organization, to transmit the money to the employee organization within 15 days of issuing the paycheck containing the deduction. This bill also would require the governing board to transmit all data related to those funds to the employee organization .

Existing law regulates workers' compensation insurance rates and, among other things, requires that rates be adequate to cover an insurer's losses and expenses. Existing law requires the Insurance Commissioner to take various actions to approve or disapprove workers' compensation rates and insurance premium increases. This bill would require the commissioner, by regulation, to establish the minimum reasonable pure loss ratio for all workers' compensation insurers. This bill would establish procedures for determining whether the rate of an individual insurer is excessive relative to the minimum reasonable pure loss ratio and would provide for the refund of excess proceeds to employers insured by the insurer during the time when an excessive rate was in effect, as specified.

Existing law authorizes employers to provide their employees paid sick leave. This bill would provide that an employee who works in California for 7 or more days in a calendar year is entitled to paid sick time, which shall be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. An employee would be entitled to use accrued sick time beginning on the 90th calendar day of employment. The bill would require employers to provide paid sick time, 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. An employer would be prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who requests paid sick time. The bill would require employers to satisfy specified posting and notice, and recordkeeping requirements. The bill would also make conforming changes. This bill contains other related provisions.

Existing law requires an employer to grant meal breaks to his or her employees at specified intervals and regulates the time and manner of employee meal breaks. This bill would exempt employees performing surveillance operations as part of a workers' compensation fraud investigation from the requirements of these provisions. This bill contains other related provisions.

Under the California Civil Rights Act of 2005, all persons within the jurisdiction of this state have the right to be free from violence, or intimidation by threat of violence, committed against their persons or property because of any specified characteristic or affiliation, including political affiliation, position in a labor dispute, disability, medical condition, sex, race, color, religion, marital status, ancestry, or national origin. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act limits the total amount of actual damages that the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission may assess against a respondent for a violation of the California Civil Rights Act of 2005, per aggrieved person, to $150,000. This bill would delete the $150,000 limitation on actual damages that may be assessed by the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission against a respondent who violates the California Civil Rights Act of 2005, as an unlawful practice.

Existing law requires private employers to perform certain activities with regard to employee wages, hours, and working conditions. This bill would require the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, in consultation with the Franchise Tax Board and the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition , to develop and implement a set of standards that, if met by an employer, would trigger a recommendation for an audit or investigation by appropriate state tax authorities of employers in violation of statutes relating to employee wages, hours, and working conditions. After July 1, 2009, this bill would require the Labor Commissioner to take specified actions to facilitate audits and investigations of employers who meet the standards required by this bill. This bill also would state findings and declarations relating to the underground economy.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the state Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act define and regulate consumer credit reports and authorize the use of consumer credit reports for employment purposes, pursuant to specified requirements. The FCRA provides that it does not preempt state law, except as specifically provided or to the extent that state laws are inconsistent with its provisions. This bill would prohibit the potential user of a consumer credit report from obtaining a consumer credit report for employment purposes unless the information is (1) substantially job related and the employer's reasons for the use of the information are disclosed to the consumer in writing or (2) required by law to be disclosed to or obtained by the potential user of the report. The bill also would extend the exemption from liability for the maintenance of reasonable procedures to ensure compliance with the provisions specified in state law to encompass the new prohibition. This bill contains other existing laws.

Existing law requires that the determination of the employer-employee relationship be made pursuant to common-law principles, with specified exceptions. Existing law provides that when an individual or entity contracts to supply an employee to perform services for a customer or client and is a leasing employer or a temporary services employer, as defined, the individual or entity is the employer of the employee who performs the services. This bill would, for purposes of all employment laws of this state, provide that a professional services organization, as defined, that enters into a professional services agreement with a client shall be deemed to be the employer of a worksite employee. This bill would require the Employment Development Department to administer the provisions of the bill, as specified. This bill would impose various requirements on professional services organizations and clients, and would also provide for fines and disciplinary actions.

Existing unemployment insurance law requires each employee to make a contribution, as defined, to the Unemployment Fund with respect to wages paid by the employer to the employees, as provided. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to these provisions. This bill contains other existing laws.

Existing law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. Existing law provides for the payment of temporary disability indemnity payments to any injured employee under specified circumstances, and provides for payment of supplemental job displacement benefits to an injured employee if an injury causes permanent partial disability and the injured employee does not return to work for the employer within 60 days of the termination of temporary disability indemnity payments. This bill would, instead, provide for the payment of those supplemental job displacement benefits to any injured worker if the injury causes permanent partial disability and the injured employee does not return to work for the employer within 60 days of the disability becoming permanent and stationary.

Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to investigate employee complaints and to provide for a hearing in any action to recover wages, penalties, and other demands for compensation and to determine all matters arising under his or her jurisdiction. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Existing law requires an employer to indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses, including those related to the enforcement of the employee's applicable rights, incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties or obedience to the unlawful directions of his or her employer, unless the employee, at the time of obeying the directions, believed them to be unlawful. All awards made by a court or the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the Department of Industrial Relations for reimbursement of those expenditures carry interest at the rate of civil judgments. This bill would clarify that an employer is required, as part of the existing indemnification requirement, to reimburse employees for the necessary expenditures and losses incurred in the course of employment. The bill would establish the federal Internal Revenue Service standard mileage rate as a reasonable per mile reimbursement rate for the usage of a personally provided vehicle for work purposes.

Under existing law, an employer may not terminate an employee because garnishment of an employee's wages has been threatened or an employee's wages have been subjected to garnishment for the payment of one judgment. This bill would prohibit an employer from terminating an employee because garnishment of the employee's wages has been threatened or the employee's wages have been subjected to garnishment.

Existing law provides that an employer may not ask an applicant for employment to disclose, and an employer may not utilize in an employment-related decision, information concerning an arrest or detention that did not result in a conviction or information concerning participation in a pretrial or posttrial diversion program. This bill, in addition, would prohibit an employer from asking an applicant for employment to disclose, or utilizing in an employment-related decision, information concerning a criminal conviction the record of which has been judicially ordered sealed, expunged, or statutorily eradicated, or information concerning a misdemeanor conviction for which probation has been successfully completed or otherwise discharged and the case has been judicially dismissed . This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.