Employer liability.

(1) Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging an employee or in any manner discriminating, retaliating, or taking any adverse action against any employee or applicant for employment because the employee or applicant has engaged in protected conduct, as specified. Existing law provides that an employee who made a bona fide complaint, and was consequently discharged or otherwise suffered an adverse action, is entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to willfully refuse to reinstate or otherwise restore an employee who is determined by a specified procedure to be eligible for reinstatement. Existing law subjects a person who violates these provisions to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. This bill would extend the protections of these provisions, as specified, to an employee who is a family member of a person who engaged in, or was perceived to engage in, the protected conduct or make a complaint protected by these provisions. This bill would define terms for the purpose of these provisions. (2) Existing law requires a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all workers supplied by that labor contractor for the payment of wages and the failure to obtain valid workers' compensation coverage. Existing law also prohibits a client employer from shifting to the labor contractor legal duties or liabilities under workplace safety provisions with respect to workers provided by the labor contractor. Existing law defines terms for these purposes and authorizes the Labor Commissioner to adopt regulations and rules of practice and procedure necessary to administer and enforce these provisions. Existing law excludes certain types of employers from these provisions, including, but not limited to, a client employer that is not a motor carrier of property based solely on the employer's use of a third-party motor carrier of property with interstate or intrastate operating authority to ship or receive freight, and a client employer that is a motor carrier of property subcontracting with, or otherwise engaging, another motor carrier of property to provide transportation services using its own employees and commercial motor vehicles. The Household Goods Carriers Act subjects household goods carriers to the jurisdiction and control of the Public Utilities Commission. The act prohibits a household goods carrier from engaging, or attempting to engage, in the business of the transportation of used household goods and personal effects by motor vehicle over any public highway in the state without a permit issued by the commission authorizing transportation entirely within the state, or a valid operating authority issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for interstate transportation. This bill would expand the types of employers excluded from those labor contracting provisions to include a client employer that is not a household goods carrier based solely on the employer's use of a third-party household goods carrier permitted by the commission to move household goods, and a client employer that is a permitted household goods carrier subcontracting with, or otherwise engaging, another permitted household goods carrier to provide transportation of household goods using its own employees and motor vehicles.