New and Proposed Laws and Legislation

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AB 202, for purposes of all provisions of state law that govern employment, including the California Labor Code, the California Unemployment Insurance Code and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, requires a cheerleader who is utilized by a California-based professional sports team during its exhibitions, events or games to be deemed an employee.

Existing law provides employment protections for members of the National Guard who have been ordered into active state or federal service. Among other things, the member of the National Guard is entitled to be restored to his or her former position or to a position of similar seniority, status and pay without loss of retirement or other benefits unless the employer’s circumstances have so changed

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Following a change in control (a sale, transfer or other disposition) of a supermarket or other grocery establishment, the successor grocery employer will be required to maintain a preferential hiring list of eligible grocery workers composed of former employees of the selling entity. The successor employer shall hire from the preferential hiring list for the first 90 days after the grocery establishment is fully operational…

Section 1725 of the California Labor Code defines “alien” as “any person who is not a born or fully naturalized citizen of the United States.” Section 2015 sets forth the “preference for employment” for the extension of public works by the state and requires the extension of such preference “First, to citizens of this State. Second, to citizens of other States within the United States……

It is no secret that California is no friend to arbitration agreements. As the United States Supreme Court noted in its 2011 opinion in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, “California’s courts have been more likely to hold contracts to arbitrate unconscionable than other contracts,” despite directives from the High Court that arbitration agreements must be placed “upon the same footing as other contracts.”

Not to be outdone by the courts, the California Legislature decided to weigh in on the ongoing battle over arbitration agreements with the introduction of Assembly Bill 465 (“AB 465”) earlier this year.

The Chamber of Commerce has just released its preliminary list of “job killer” bills that have been proposed in the California Legislature. Don’t forget that California remains tied with Louisiana for the fourth highest rate of unemployment in the country at 6.7%.

This year’s list identifies 16 proposed laws, including four new “Increased Labor Costs” mandates and one “Increased Unnecessary Litigation Costs” mandate, which…

California businesses that have 50 or more employees are already required to train supervisors on legally prohibited sexual harassment. Following California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent signing of A.B. 2053, that training must now also include education on preventing “abusive conduct” in the workplace, even if the conduct is not based on a protected characteristic nor constitutes legally prohibited discrimination or harassment.

As amended by…

On September 9, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed A.B. 1443, which extends the state’s anti-harassment and anti-discrimination protections to unpaid interns.

Employers are now prohibited from discrimination based on protected characteristics in the “selection, termination, training or other terms” of unpaid interns. A.B. 1443 also prohibits harassment of unpaid interns based on protected characteristics, and it makes employers liable for sexual harassment of…

On September 10th, California became the second state in the country to require businesses to provide employees with paid sick leave, following Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of A.B. 1522, which goes into effect on July 1, 2015, and will be known as the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.

Click here to read our detailed post about A.B. 1522.