Current, Pending Legislation Affecting California Employers

In this episode of The Workplace podcast, CalChamber Associate General Counsel Matthew Roberts and CalChamber Senior Policy Advocate Ashley Hoffman discuss pending employment-related legislation, including bills on CalChamber’s Affordability Agenda, in the California Legislature.

For more than two decades, CalChamber has issued the “Job Killer” list to call attention to legislation that would have eliminated jobs or opportunities for investment in job growth for California businesses. The list has been hugely successful for the business community, as more than 93 percent of bills that have wound up on the list over the years have been halted in the legislative process or amended to remove the most onerous provisions.

This year, CalChamber created an Affordability Agenda to highlight legislation that helps businesses and consumers by cutting costs, as well as those policies that drive costs up as Californians worry about day-to-day living expenses. Bills are labeled as either Cost Drivers, which would increase costs for small businesses and consumers, or Cost Cutters, which would reduce costs for Californians.

On this podcast, Roberts and Hoffman discuss pending employment-related legislation, including:

• AB 1331, which would affect every single California employer by broadly limiting workplace surveillance tools, like video cameras and potentially even employee badge technology. Cost Driver.
• SB 7, which would regulate automated decision systems used for employment purposes, even if it’s just used to assist decision making (for example, scheduling software, resume screening). Cost Driver.
• AB 858, which would create a statewide return-to-work mandate for the hospitality industry after any state of emergency, putting rigid restrictions on who needs to be hired back, in what order and how long employers need to wait for former employees to respond. Cost Driver.
• SB 310, which would undermine last year’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reforms by creating another private right of action to collect penalties from employers. Cost Driver. (Note: After this podcast was recorded, SB 310 failed to pass the house in which it was introduced and is considered dead for the year.)
• SB 642, which would amend California’s pay scale and equal pay act laws, including increasing the statute of limitations to allow a longer period in which lawsuits could be filed to recover damages.
• SB 294, which would require employers to provide employees with a “Know Your Rights” notice — developed by the Labor Commissioner’s office — on different kinds of workers’ rights, like heat illness, workers’ compensation and worker misclassification.

Stay tuned to The Workplace Podcast for future updates and changes to employment-related legislation.