LABOR

• AB 489, Calderon. Workers' compensation: disability payments. This bill extends an existing pilot program by one year to allow workers' compensation temporary and permanent disability indemnity payments to continue to be made using prepaid cards. An act to amend Section 4651 of the Labor Code, relating to workers' compensation.

• AB 520, Santiago. Employment: public entities. Extends existing labor law provisions applicable to the private sector to make a "public entity," as defined, jointly and severally liable for unpaid wages when the public entity contracts for services in the property or long-term care industries and where the public entity has been provided notice of such liability by the Labor Commissioner (LC). An act to amend Section 238.5 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• AB 521, Bauer-Kahan. Occupational safety and health standards: construction jobsites: toilet facilities. Requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (standards board), before December 1, 2025, to draft a rulemaking proposal to consider revising regulations on construction jobsite restrooms to require at least one single-user toilet facility on all construction jobsites, designed for employees who self-identify as female or nonbinary. Additionally requires the standards board to consider adopting revised standards on or before December 31, 2025. An act to amend Section 118600 of the Health and Safety Code, and to add Section 6722 to the Labor Code, relating to occupational safety and health.

• AB 587, Robert Rivas. Public works: payroll records. Requires any copy of records requested by, and made available for inspection by or furnished to, a Taft-Hartley trust fund or joint labor-management committee to be on forms provided by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) or contain the same information as the forms provided by DLSE. Additionally, this bill clarifies that copies of electronic certified payroll records do not satisfy payroll records requests made by Taft-Hartley trust funds and joint labor-management committees. An act to amend Section 1776 of the Labor Code, relating to public works.

• AB 594, Maienschein. Labor Code: alternative enforcement. Authorizes, until January 1, 2029, public prosecutors to sue for certain violations of the Labor Code independently of the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) and nullifies any agreements that limit an employee's right to file in court on behalf of themselves or in a representative action. Permits, in an action for willful misclassification, the recovery of penalties by the employee as a statutory penalty or as a civil penalty. An act to amend Sections 218 and 226.8 of, to add Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180) to Division 1 of, and to repeal Section 181 of, the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• AB 621, Irwin. Workers' compensation: special death benefit. Allows the spouse and children of specified state safety members, peace officers, and firefighters for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) who are killed in the line of duty to receive both the workers' compensation death benefit and the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) special death benefit. An act to amend Section 4707 of the Labor Code, relating to workers' compensation.

• AB 636, Kalra. Employers: agricultural employees: required disclosures. This bill requires agricultural employers to provide employees at the time of hire, information on the existence of a federal or state disaster declaration applicable to the county or counties where the employee will be employed if the emergency or disaster may affect the employee's health and safety during employment. Additionally, this bill requires an H-2A visa employer to provide an employee, on their first day of work or upon transfer, the notice of basic employment related information with a separate section in Spanish, and if requested by the employee, in English, describing an agricultural employee's rights and protections. An act to amend Section 2810.5 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• AB 647, Holden. Grocery workers. Revises recall rights for grocery workers when there is a change of control in a grocery establishment to: 1) cover workers of a grocery distribution center; and 2) create a private right of action with an opportunity for an employer to cure and an administrative complaint process for violations of recall provisions. An act to amend Sections 2502, 2504, and 2512 of, and to add Sections 2509, 2510, and 2517 to, the Labor Code, relating to private employment.

• AB 1007, Ortega. Occupational safety and health standards: plume. Requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) to, by December 1, 2026, submit to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Board) a proposed regulation requiring a health facility to evacuate or remove plume using plume-scavenging systems in all settings that employ techniques that involve the creation of plume. This bill also requires the Board to consider the proposed regulation for adoption by June 1, 2027. An act to add Section 144.9 to the Labor Code, relating to occupational safety and health.

• AB 1121, Haney. Public works: ineligibility list. Requires awarding authorities to annually submit to the Department of Industrial Relations' (DIR) electronic project registration database a list of contractors, with specified information, that are ineligible to bid on or be awarded a public works contract, or to perform work as a subcontractor on a public works project, pursuant to local debarment or suspension processes. An act to amend Section 1771.1 of the Labor Code, relating to public works.

• AB 1228, Holden. Fast food restaurant industry: Fast Food Council: health, safety, employment, and minimum wage. Repeals the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act on the condition that the referendum contesting the FAST Act is withdrawn by January 1, 2024. In the event of the referendum's withdrawal, this bill not only repeals the FAST Act but also reestablishes, until January 1, 2029, a modified version of the Fast Food Council (Council). This bill additionally outlines the Council's objectives, responsibilities, and constraints in relation to setting an hourly minimum wage and overseeing the adoption and evaluation of health, safety, and employment standards for fast food restaurant employees. An act to add Part 4.5.5 (commencing with Section 1474) to, and to repeal Part 4.5.5 (commencing with Section 1470) of, Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• AB 1389, Wendy Carrillo. Notice of levy. Extends the levy remittance time limit from five days to after ten, but no later than 14 business days after service of the levy. An act to amend Section 1755 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to unemployment insurance.

• AB 1766, Committee on Labor and Employment. Division of Occupational Safety and Health: regulations. This bill requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CalOSHA) to formulate, propose, and administer regulations pertaining to passenger tramways (ski lifts) and makes other technical, clarifying, and noncontroversial changes to statute. An act to amend Section 3351 of, and to add Section 7358 to, the Labor Code, and to amend Sections 10200, 10204, and 10205 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to employment.

• SB 41, Cortese. Meal and rest breaks: airline Cabin crew employees. Exempts from state meal and rest period law airline Cabin crew employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) addressing meal and rest periods. Extends this exemption for 12 months to those employees who are represented by a labor organization but are not yet covered by a CBA that addresses meal and rest periods. An act to add Section 512.2 to the Labor Code, relating to employment, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

• SB 332, Cortese. Minor league baseball players. This bill exempts minor league baseball players covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement (CBA) from minimum wage, overtime, meal period and recordkeeping requirements of existing law if the CBA meets specified criteria. An act to amend Section 226 of, and to add Section 514.5 to, the Labor Code, relating to employment, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

• SB 497, Smallwood-Cuevas. Protected employee conduct. Establishes a rebuttable presumption in favor of an employee's retaliation claim if an employer engages in any disciplinary behavior, as specified, within 90 days of an employee engaging in specified protected activity and directs recovery of civil penalties for a violation of whistleblower protections to the affected employee. An act to amend Sections 98.6, 1102.5, and 1197.5 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 525, Durazo. Minimum wages: health care workers. This bill (1) enacts a phased in multi-tiered statewide minimum wage schedule for health care workers employed by covered healthcare facilities, as defined; (2) requires, following the phased-in wage increases, the minimum wage for health care workers employed by covered healthcare facilities to be adjusted, as specified; (3) provides a temporary waiver of wage increases under specified circumstances; (4) and establishes a 10-year moratorium on wage ordinances, regulations, or administrative actions for covered health care facility employees, as specified. An act to add Sections 1182.14 and 1182.15 to the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 553, Cortese. Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan. This bill requires employers to establish, implement and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP) that includes, among other elements, requirements to maintain incident logs, provide specified trainings, and conduct periodic reviews of the plan. This bill also authorizes a collective bargaining representative of an employee who has suffered unlawful violence from any individual, to seek a temporary restraining order (TRO) and an order after hearing on behalf of the employee(s) at the workplace. An act to amend, repeal, and add Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and to amend Section 6401.7 of, and to add Section 6401.9 to, the Labor Code, relating to occupational safety.

• SB 616, Gonzalez. Sick days: paid sick days accrual and use. This bill (1) increases the three days of paid sick leave currently afforded to employees under existing law to five days, as specified; (2) increases the cap that employers can place on paid sick days from six to 10 days and 48 to 80 hours and increases the number of paid sick days an employee can roll over to the next year from three to five days; (3) and extends procedural and anti-retaliation provisions in existing paid sick leave law to employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement that is exempt, if they meet specified criteria, from other provisions of the paid sick leave law. An act to amend Sections 245.5, 246, and 246.5 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 623, Laird. Workers' compensation: post-traumatic stress disorder. This bill extends, to January 1, 2029, the presumption for specified public safety personnel that a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI) is occupational, and therefore covered by workers' compensation (WC) and requires the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (Commission) to submit two reports to the legislature regarding PTSI, as specified. An act to amend Section 3212.15 of the Labor Code, relating to workers' compensation.

• SB 626, Rubio. Smoking tobacco in the workplace: transient lodging establishments. Removes the exemption for up to twenty percent of guestroom accommodations in transient lodging establishments from the prohibition on smoking tobacco products at a place of employment. An act to amend Section 6404.5 of the Labor Code, relating to workplace safety.

• SB 700, Bradford. Employment discrimination: Cannabis use. This bill adds to the prohibitions under the Fair Housing and Employment Act (FEHA), set to take effect January 1, 2024, on employment discrimination on the basis of an employee's or potential employee's Cannabis use, to prohibit an employer from requesting information about an employee or applicant's past Cannabis use, subject to specified exceptions. An act to amend Section 12954 of the Government Code, relating to employment discrimination.

• SB 723, Durazo. Employment: rehiring and retention: displaced workers. This bill extends, from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025, the sunset date on the existing "right to recall" rights for employees in the hospitality and service industry, and adds to these provisions a presumption that a separation due to a lack of business, reduction in force, or other economic, non-disciplinary reason is due to a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic, unless the employer establishes otherwise by a preponderance of the evidence. An act to amend and repeal Section 2810.8 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 848, Rubio. Employment: leave for reproductive loss. This bill requires employers, of five or more employees, to provide eligible employees with up to five days of reproductive loss leave following a reproductive loss event defined as a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth or an unsuccessful assisted reproduction. An act to add Section 12945.6 to the Government Code, relating to employment.