Our weekly California Legislature “hot list” provides you with a preview of the bills that are up (as well as other important legislative action) the following week.

Recap of Legislative Bill Activity Last Week – The following bills were acted upon this past week:

AB 260 (Santiago) – Human Trafficking: Hotels and Motels – Hearing canceled at the request of the author.

AB 1556 (Stone) – Employment Discrimination – Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee (7-0); now moves to the Senate floor.

AB 500 (Gomez) – Employee Codes of Conduct – Passed the Senate Education Committee (7-0); now moves to the Senate floor.

AB 168 (Eggman) – Salary History Information – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Rules Committee.

AB 1425 (Kalra) – Apprentices – Passed the Senate Labor Committee (4-1); now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Assembly Judiciary Committee – June 20, 2017 (Tuesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 437

SB 225 (Stern) - Human Trafficking: Hotels and Motels – Revises a specified human trafficking notice that certain establishments are required to post to include the ability to text certain hotlines, and makes other minor changes.

SB 306 (Hertzberg) – Retaliation – This bill dramatically revises retaliation claim procedures.  Among other things, this bill authorizes the Labor Commissioner to petition the court for injunctive relief (such as reinstating the employee) before completing an investigation and determining whether a violation has occurred.  The bill also requires the employer to pay attorneys’ fees and costs if the Labor Commissioner prevails in an enforcement action.

Assembly Higher Education Committee – June 20, 2017 (Tuesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 437

SB 201 (Skinner) – Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) – Grants collective bargaining rights to students employed as research assistants (RAs) at the University of California, the California State University, and the Hastings College of Law. 

Assembly Aging Committee – June 20, 2017 (Tuesday) – 3:00 p.m. – Room 127

SB 219 (Wiener) – LGBT Long-Term Care Facility Resident’s Bill of Rights – This bill would prohibit skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and residential care facilities from taking specified actions based on a resident’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status, including refusing to use a resident’s preferred name or pronoun.

Assembly PERSS Committee – June 21, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 444

SB 285 (Atkins) – Public Employers: Union Organizing – Prohibits a public employer from deterring or discouraging public employees from becoming or remaining members of a union.

SB 548 (Atkins) – PERB: Expedited Petitions – Authorizes PERB to grant expedited status for specified matters, and requires PERB to grant expedited status for other matters that meet certain criteria.

Senate Education Committee – June 21, 2017 (Wednesday) – 9:00 a.m. – Room 4203

AB 568 (Gonzalez Fletcher) – School and Community College: Paid Maternity Leave – Requires school districts and community colleges to provide at least 6 weeks of paid leave for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions.

Assembly Labor Committee – June 21, 2017 (Wednesday) – 1:30 p.m. – Room 447

SB 63 (Jackson) – New Parent Leave – This bill would provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected family leave to bond with a new child for employees that work for employers with 20 or more employees (as opposed to CFRA, which applies to employers with 50 or more employees).  This bill is similar to the author’s SB 654, which was vetoed last year by Governor Brown.  Notably, that bill only provided for six weeks of job-protected leave, whereas SB 63 would authorize up to 12 weeks.

SB 295 (Monning) – Farm Labor Contractors – This bill provides that violations of specified sexual harassment training requirements applicable to farm labor contractors are violations of the Labor Code and subject to citation by the Labor Commissioner.  The bill also requires that sexual harassment training for each agricultural employee be in a language understood by that employee.

SB 772 (Leyva) – Cal/OSHA Regulations – Existing state law requires an in-depth economic assessment (known as the Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment – SRIA) of any regulation estimated to cost employers over $50 million.  This bill would exempt Cal/OSHA regulations from that requirement.  The author of this bill sponsored legislation last year (SB 1167) to require the adoption of an indoor heat illness standard.  She indicates that this bill is intended to help expedite the adoption of that regulation and argues that the SRIA requirement is duplicative and can lead to unnecessary delay.