Yesterday was the deadline for fiscal committees to send bills in their second house to the floor. Two employment-related California Chamber of Commerce-opposed job killers have moved to the Senate and Assembly Floors.
SB 1300 to Assembly Floor
SB 1300 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) is tagged as a job killer because it creates a new stand-alone private right of action for failure to prevent harassment or discrimination where no harassment or discrimination actually occurred and limits the use of nondisparagement agreements and general releases. However, the author has stated that she plans to amend the bill to remove the stand-alone private right of action as well as clarify language regarding non-disparagement agreements, which once in print, could impact CalChamber’s position.
AB 3080 to Senate Floor
AB 3080 (Gonzalez Fletcher; D-San Diego) is a job killer bill that significantly expands employment litigation and increases costs for employers and employees by banning settlement agreements for labor and employment claims as well as arbitration agreements made as a condition of employment, which is likely preempted under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and will only delay the resolution of claims. The bill now goes to the Senate Floor.
Former Job Killer Held
Earlier this week, CalChamber announced that SB 1284 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara), a bill dealing with pay data disclosure, was removed from the job killer list after it was amended on August 8 to help rectify the public shaming aspect of the bill. CalChamber remains opposed to SB 1284 because of the administrative burden it still places on employers by requiring them to turn over pay data information that could give the false impression of pay disparity where none may exist.
The bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file and is likely dead for the year.
The Legislature has a couple more weeks to finish conducting business. August 31 is the last day for each house to send bills to the Governor.
For more information on the remaining job killer bills, visit www.CAJobKillers.com
