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Legislative Updates HR Manager information is NOT legal advice. Consult an attorney for all legal questions. Click here to see previous legislative updates. EFFECTIVE IMMEDATELY AB76 This bill revises the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to address sexual harassment liability to employers for acts committed by non-employees where the employer knew or should have known of the incident and failed to take corrective action. View this law at
AB254 Under current California law, employees who are age 60 or older at the time of an Initial Qualifying Event (i.e. termination or reduction of hours), and who have worked for an employer for at least five (5) years, are entitled to continue coverage with the employer’s insurance carrier after COBRA coverage ends. This bill would limit this offer to employees meeting eligibility requirements prior to January 1, 2005. View this law at
AB1127 Existing law requires employers to prominently display a whistleblower law poster. The lettering on that poster must be larger than size 14 pica type where it contains a list of employees' rights and responsibilities under the whistleblower laws. This bill instead would require that the lettering of the list be larger than size 14 point type. View this law at
AB2412 Existing law forbids employers, employees, and agents of the employer from making a false statement or representation concerning an employee’s unemployment eligibility. Employers are also forbidden from failing to report a material fact concerning a termination. Employers found in violation of this law may be accessed a penalty by the Employment Development Department in an amount of not less than two but not more than ten times the weekly benefit of the claimant’s compensation. This amendment will extend the penalty to employers who willfully make a false statement or representation concerning a claimant’s re-employment. In accordance with the current law, it is extremely important
that employers be able to prove the nature of a termination. Employers
should obtain a resignation letter from all employees who voluntarily
terminate in order to prove the nature of the termination. Similarly,
employers should avoid the desire to misrepresent a voluntary termination
in order to allow an employee the opportunity to collect unemployment View this law at
AB2866 Workers’ Compensation Fraud – Internet Posting of Convictions The Department of Insurance will begin posting on its Internet site information for each person, association or business convicted of insurance fraud involving workers’ compensation. The information will be posted for a period of five years from the date of conviction or until such time as the department is notified that the conviction has been reversed or expunged. View this law at
SB873 Criminal History Disclosure – Working with Minors Employers who have employees that work with minors may obtain information from the Department of Justice concerning the federal criminal history and juvenile arrest information of potential employees or volunteers who will work with minors. View this law at
SB 899 Some portions of this law are retroactively effective – others have a future effective date as shown below. View a summary of this law. View this law at
SB
1465 If a subpoena for documents relating to a current or former members employment is sent to a labor union, a notice must be sent to the union member. Current law only requires notification to the employee if a subpoena for information is sent to an employer. View this law at
SB 1809 This controversial bill was introduced last year and became known as the “Sue Your Boss” bill. The bill allowed individual employees and their attorneys to sue for alleged violations to any labor law – no matter now minor. There was no requirement to appeal first to an enforcing agency. The bill created monetary penalties for laws that did not have monetary penalties. The awarding of attorney fees was allowed under this bill and the result was an abundance of trivial lawsuits – in the first six months of 2004 there were $556,000,000 in lawsuits filed. The revised law went into effect on August 12, 2004. Two provisions were retroactive to 1/1/04. View a summary of this law. View this law at
Judicial Decision A recent California Court of Appeals decision can help employers with the definition of “discharge” for temporary employees who are employed for a fixed time period. View a summary of this decision. Department of Industrial Relations Emergency Regulations The DIR has just released proposed emergency regulations to clarify the law regarding an employer’s duty as it relates to employees taking a meal period. Currently, employers are required to ensure that employees to take a meal period no later than the fifth hour of work. The clarification now requires that employers make a meal period “available”. While this is less burdensome, employers who deny a meal period to an employee are still liable for fines and penalties in the amount of one hour of pay. EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2005 AB205 Employers are required to extend benefits and rights to registered domestic partners in the same manner that such rights and benefits are offered to employees and their spouses. Therefore registered domestic partners will have the right to insurance benefits on the same basis as any rights extended to married employees. View this law at
AB2208 This bill enacts the California Insurance Equity for All Families Act. Under current law, group health plans are required to offer health coverage for registered domestic partners that is equal to coverage offered to dependents of employees. This bill changes the terminology slightly – now requiring that the coverage offered to registered domestic partners be equal to coverage offered to “spouses”. In most cases, health insurance plans offer the same level of benefits to “spouses” and dependent children. So this revision would most likely affect only life insurance plans that may contain a higher benefit for a spouse as opposed to a dependent child. Such plans must offer the same benefit available to a “spouse” to a registered domestic partner beginning 1/1/05. If the employer contributes a portion of the cost of coverage for spouses, the employer must contribute the same amount towards the cost of coverage for a domestic partner. The plan may require proof of domestic partner registration (or dissolution) only if the plan requires proof of marriage or divorce. Self-funded plans are exempted from this requirement as they are governed by federal law which does not recognize domestic partner relationships. One important point for consideration – premiums paid for domestic partner coverage are not “qualified” under the federal tax code and therefore may only be deducted on a post-tax basis. Therefore, such costs may not be paid through a Section 125 Salary Reduction Plan. Furthermore, if the employer contributes towards the costs of dependent coverage, any such contribution would be considered taxable income to the employee since federal law does not recognize domestic partner relationships. View more information about this law at
SB1314 Each California county, city or special district must conduct a criminal history check on all employees and volunteers if the job position has supervisory or disciplinary authority over any minor. If a job applicant or volunteer has been convicted of specified offenses, such individual may not be hired for the job position. View this law at
AB1825 Beginning 1/1/05, California employers with 50* or more employees are required to provide 2 hours of sexual harassment training to supervisors within one year of the effective date of the law. Beginning 1/1/06, employers must provide sexual harassment training to supervisors once every two years. View a summary of this law. View this law at
SB 1618 Existing law requires that employers display the name and social security number of employees on the pay stub. This bill would require employers to remove employee social security numbers from the itemized portion of an employee's pay stub. Employers have the option of either including just the last four digits of the employee's social security number or an existing employee identification number. Employers may implement the change before January 1, 2008 but must have the removal process completed by 1/1/08. View this law at
Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 This federal law now makes taxable some types of benefits that were previously tax-exempt. Other types of benefits will be considered unavailable. Effective date of this legislation is 1/1/05. View a summary of this law. Minimum Wage Increase SAN FRANCISCO CITY AND COUNTY EMPLOYERS The minimum wage for San Francisco city/county employers will increase to $8.62 per hour effective January 1, 2005. The required rate for small businesses with less than ten employees and non-profit organizations will be $7.75 per hour. EXEMPT EMPLOYEE MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE Computer software employees who qualify as exempt employees must be paid a minimum of $45.84 per hour effective 1/1/05 or lose their exempt status. Licensed physicians and surgeons who qualify as exempt employees must be paid a minimum of $59.11 per hour effective 1/1/05 or lose their exempt status. PENDING Military Leave - Proposed New Rules The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is considering some revisions to this law. USERRA applies to all employers – regardless of size. USERRA forbids employers from refusing to hire or promote an employee on the basis of the employee’s military obligations. Employees generally must give written or oral notice to employers before taking military leave, but need not obtain an employer's permission. View a summary of the proposed rules. EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2006 SB2 View more information at the following website:
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2007 SB2 View more information at the following website:
AB17 View more information at the following website:
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