New and Proposed Laws and Legislation

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On Oct. 15, 2017, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 396 into law, expanding the scope of mandatory sexual harassment training employers must provide to their supervisory employees.  Currently, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide at least two hours of prescribed training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees within six months…

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill 63 into law, expanding parental leave protections to those individuals who work for employers with at least 20 employees.  Under the new law, which is set to take effect on January 1, 2018, employers with at least 20 employees must allow an employee who has more than 12 months of service with the employer to take up…

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a statewide salary history inquiry law that will largely restrict employers in the state from seeking and relying upon salary history information from applicants during the hiring process.

The law, which will go into effect on January 1, 2018 and will apply to all private and public sector employers, will prohibit employers from:

  • relying on salary history

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On Thursday, October 5th, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law nearly a dozen new immigration-related bills, including AB 450, which prohibits employers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in the absence of a judicial warrant or court order.  Among other things, the new law:

  • Prohibits employers from voluntarily consenting to an immigration enforcement agent’s entering nonpublic areas of the workplace without a warrant;

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San Francisco has become the latest jurisdiction to pass a law restricting employers from inquiring about prior salary history during the hiring process.  The ordinance, which will go into effect on July 1, 2018, will restrict employers from: (i) considering or relying on an applicant’s salary history as a factor in determining whether to make an offer of employment or what salary to offer; (ii) …

As we previously blogged, Assembly Bill 2337 (approved by the Governor last fall) will go into effect on July 1, 2017, and California employers will be required to give written notice of workplace rights that must be provided to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The Labor Commissioner has just posted a form that employers may elect to use to comply with …

In May 2017, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) approved new regulations regarding transgender identity and expression in the workplace. The regulations become effective July 1, 2017.

The new rules further expand the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (FEHA) role in preventing discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of gender identity. In addition, the regulations describe some new policies that…

According to reporting from the California Chamber of Commerce, several recently introduced bills have passed the California State Senate or Assembly and now move on to a vote in the second house. These bills include:

  • Assembly Bill 1209 – requires California employers with more than 250 employees to collect data on the mean and median salaries paid to men and women under the same

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San Jose is the third northern California city to enact a scheduling ordinance that further regulates employers’ scheduling and hiring practices.  Following on San Francisco and Emeryville’s lead, San Jose recently passed “The Opportunity to Work Ordinance” (Ordinance No. 2016.1, codified at Chapter 4.101 of the San Jose Municipal Code), which went into effect on February 6, 2017.

The primary aim of the Ordinance…

As we reported here in December, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance is now effective. The new law, also referred to as the “Ban the Box “ ordinance, restricts employers in the City of Los Angeles from asking job applicants about criminal convictions until after a conditional offer of employment has been made.

This week, the City of Los Angeles…