Senate Committee to Consider 3 Cost Driver Bills Today
News
Three bills identified by the California Chamber of Commerce as Cost Drivers are scheduled to be considered today by the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee.
Joining the CalChamber in opposing the bills as Cost Drivers that ultimately will lead to higher costs for consumers and further increase the cost of living in California are coalitions of employer groups and local chambers of commerce.
On the committee’s agenda are:
- SB 7 (McNerney; D-Pleasanton): Restricts Use of Automated Decision Systems in Employment. The bill imposes impractical requirements on employers of every size related to automated decision systems, which will discourage the use of such tools and subject employers to costly litigation and onerous new compliance procedures.
- SB 310 (Wiener; D-San Francisco): Expands Private Right of Action for Penalties. SB 310 creates a new private right of action for wage and hour penalties that will be manipulated by trial attorneys, undermining the 2024 Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reform, which sought to reduce avenues for litigation abuse.
- SB 632 (Arreguín; D-Berkeley): Expands Costly Presumption of Injury. SB 632 significantly increases workers’ compensation costs for public and private hospitals by presuming certain diseases and injuries are caused by the workplace and establishes an extremely concerning precedent for expanding presumptions into the private sector. Both similar and much narrower versions of this bill have been tried nine times before and failed every time.
Staff Contact: Ashley Hoffman