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act shall not constitute abusive conduct, unless
especially severe and egregious.” The law takes
effect January 1, 2015. Employers covered by
the A.B. 1825 training requirement should review
and revise their training materials to ensure that
prevention of abusive conduct is covered.
Leave
•
A.B. 1522 – Paid Sick Leave:
The new California
Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014
will require employers to provide paid sick leave to
most employees. (See discussion above.)
•
A.B. 2536 – Time Off for Emergency Duty:
Amends California’s existing law requiring
protected time off to perform emergency duty as
a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, or
emergency rescue personnel. The law expands
the definition of “emergency rescue personnel”
to include an officer, employee, or member of
a disaster medical response entity sponsored
or requested by the state. It also requires an
employee who is a health care provider to notify
his/her employer when he/she is designated
as emergency rescue personnel and to provide
notification when the employee learns that he/
she will be deployed for emergency duty.
Wage & Hour
•
A.B. 1897 – Shared Responsibility:
Adds
new California Labor Code section 2810.3 to
impose shared legal responsibility and liability
on a client-employer for all workers supplied
by a labor contractor, with respect to the
payment of wages and the failure to obtain valid
workers’ compensation coverage. The statute
expressly permits client-employers and/or labor
contractors to include indemnification provisions
in their service contract, except that a client-
employer may not shift to the labor contractor
any Cal-OSHA legal duties.
•
S.B. 1360 – Recovery Periods:
Confirms that
recovery periods that are taken pursuant to heat
illness regulations are paid breaks and count as
hours worked.
•
A.B. 2288 – Child Labor Violations:
Provides
additional penalties for certain child labor law
violations, including a penalty of $25,000 to
$50,000 for “Class A” violations involving minors
ages 12 and under. The measure also tolls the
statute of limitations for claims that arise from
violations of employment laws until the minor is
18 years of age.
•
S.B. 477 – Foreign Labor Contractors:
Applies to
employers that use foreign labor contractors to
recruit foreign workers for California assignments.
The new law will require foreign labor contractors
to meet registration, licensing and bonding
requirements by July 1, 2016, and employers will
be barred from using non-registered foreign labor
contractors to supply workers in California.
Immigration-Related Protections
•
A.B. 1660 – National Origin Discrimination:
Amends FEHA to specify that discrimination
on the basis of national origin includes, but is
not limited to, discrimination on the basis of
possessing a driver’s license issued under last
year’s A.B. 60 (which authorized the DMV to begin
issuing, as of January 1, 2015, a special class of
driver’s license to undocumented workers). The
law indicates that it does not interfere with an
employer’s obligations under federal immigration
law to determine work authorization.
•
A.B. 2751 – Unfair Immigration-Related Practice:
Expands the definition of an unfair immigration-
related practice to include threatening to file
or filing a false report or complaint with any
state or federal agency (existing law extended
the protection only to reports filed with the
police). The law also clarifies the prohibition on
discrimination or retaliation against an employee
who updates personal information based on a
lawful name, Social Security number, or federal
employment authorization document.
Arbitration
•
A.B. 2617 – Mandatory Arbitration Agreements:
Prohibits mandatory, pre-dispute arbitration
agreements in contracts for the provision of goods
or services, to the extent an individual is required
to waive rights to bring a civil action under the
Unruh or Bane Civil Rights Acts (Civil Code sections
51.7 and 52.1) for violation of civil rights relating
to hate crimes or political activity. The new law is
tied specifically to hate crime statutes, but there
is some potential for the law to impact arbitration
agreements in the employment arena. In particular,
in some instances courts have held that certain
types of employment discrimination and harassment
claims may also constitute hate crimes within the
meaning of Civil Code sections 51.7 and 52.1.
•
A.B. 802 – Information Regarding Arbitration:
Requires major arbitration providers such as
JAMS and AAA to publish at least quarterly on
their websites detailed information concerning
arbitrations they have handled, such as the
name of any non-consumer party involved in the
arbitration (e.g. the name of an employer), the
nature of the dispute (e.g. employment), if the
non-consumer party is an employer, whether
the employer was the initiating or responding
party, the annual wage (in a range) earned by
the involved employee, the amount of the claim,
which party prevailed, and the amount of any
award, including attorneys’ fees, and other
information. This new law may destroy the usual
benefit of privacy that arbitration provides.
WHAT NEXT?
As 2015 begins, it is a good time to take a close look
at your employee handbook and other policies and
practices to ensure your organization is in step with
the wide range of employment law developments
during the last year.
HR
Carolyn Rashby is Special Counsel and Jocelyn Chan is an
Associate with Miller Law Group in San Francisco. Ms. Rashby’s
practice focuses on advising management on a wide range of
employment matters, and she currently serves on the NCHRA
Governing Board of Directors. Ms. Chan represents employers in
employment litigation and provides advice on employment matters.
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