Existing law provides specified protections for employees and specified obligations and prohibitions for employers in regard to payment of wages, gratuities, working conditions, bonds and photographs required by employers, contracts and applications for employment, purchases by employees, employee working hours, agreements regarding joining or becoming a member of a labor organization or employer organization, solicitation of employees by misrepresentation, enrollment in drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, employee political affiliations, public works, employee indemnification and contributory negligence, provision of health benefits, termination, and occupational safety and health. A violation of several of these provisions by an employer or an agent, manager, superintendent, or officer of an employer is a misdemeanor or infraction, as specified. This bill would expressly provide that these provisions apply to the Legislature and legislative employees, as specified. By expanding the scope of existing crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that these changes operate retroactively, except to the extent that retroactive operation would impose criminal liability for violations of law occurring before January 1, 2022. Existing law authorizes the commissioner to collect unpaid wages and monetary benefits due to an employee. Existing law requires the commissioner to make a diligent search to locate any worker for whom the commissioner has collected unpaid wages or benefits. Existing law requires the commissioner to remit those wages or benefits to the unpaid worker or the worker's representative, or to a trust or custodial fund established under a plan to provide prescribed benefits. Under existing law, the commissioner acts as trustee and deposits the collected wages and benefits into the Industrial Relations Unpaid Wage Fund, which is continuously appropriated for the purpose of remitting the collected wages or benefits. By expanding the scope of provisions of the Labor Code to apply to the Legislature, the bill would increase the amount of collected wages and benefits deposited into the Industrial Relations Unpaid Wage Fund, thereby making an appropriation. The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 authorizes an aggrieved employee on behalf of themselves and other current or former employees to bring a civil action to recover specified civil penalties, that would otherwise be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for the violation of certain provisions affecting employees. The act provides that a specified percentage of civil penalties recovered by aggrieved employees are distributed to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, to be continuously appropriated to supplement specified agency functions. This bill would authorize an employee of the Legislature to bring an action described above. The bill would provide that the portion of a civil penalty not distributed to an aggrieved employee under the act shall be subject to appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would make these provisions retroactive. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, such as the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Act and other statutes, has the goal of encouraging the preservation and protection of items and places of cultural and historical interest. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to later enact legislation to protect precious and irreplaceable items and places of cultural and historical interest by prohibiting public entities from, and urging private entities to refrain from, engaging with individuals and entities who have destroyed, vandalized, scavenged, stolen from, or otherwise despoiled, artifacts, items, or structures in any place of cultural and historical interest anywhere in the world.
Existing law designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution and as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Existing law requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions to ensure that the statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit, as defined, no later than December 31, 2030. On September 23, 2020, the Governor issued Executive Order No. N-79-20 establishing a goal that 100% of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks be zero-emission by 2035. This bill would declare that, to help achieve the state's climate and air quality goals and mandates, it is the goal of the state, as established in Executive Order No. N-79-20, that 100% of in-state sales of new passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks be zero-emission by 2035. The bill would require the state board, to the extent consistent with state and federal law, to develop and adopt passenger vehicle and light-duty truck regulations requiring increasing volumes of new zero-emission vehicles sold in the state towards the target of 100% of in-state sales by 2035.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law requires a health care service plan in the individual, small group, or large group markets to file rate information with the Department of Managed Health Care, as specified. Existing law requires the information submitted to be made publicly available, except as specified, and requires the department and the health care service plan to make specified information, including justification for an unreasonable rate increase, readily available to the public on their internet websites in plain language. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate each health facility, defined to mean a facility, place, or building that is organized, maintained, and operated for the diagnosis, care, prevention, and treatment of human illness, and includes, among others, a general acute care hospital, an acute psychiatric hospital, and a skilled nursing facility. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the definition of "health facility" for these purposes.
Existing law provides for the creation by local ordinance, or by ministerial approval if a local agency has not adopted an ordinance, of accessory dwelling units to allow single-family or multifamily dwelling residential use in accordance with specified standards and conditions. Existing law, with certain exceptions, prohibits a local agency from using or imposing any additional standards, including, until January 1, 2025, owner-occupant requirements. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the latter provisions.
Existing law regulates the business of cemeteries and defines key terminology used in the cemetery business. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to those provisions.
Existing law prohibits the manufacture, transport, sale, and delivery of specified controlled substances, including fentanyl. Existing law prescribes certain statutory rights of victims and witnesses of crimes. This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that extends the statutory rights of crime victims to the families of fentanyl overdose victims and ensures investigations to determine criminal liability for these overdoses.
(1) Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act, provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are entitled to full and equal accommodations in all business establishments regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status. This bill would extend the protections of the Unruh Civil Rights Act to persons regardless of political belief or affiliation. The bill would specify that these provisions are declarative of existing law. (2) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , protects the right to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination because of specified characteristics and prescribes various employment, labor, and apprenticeship practices, among other things, in this regard. Among the protected characteristics are race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, and military or veteran status. FEHA also makes unlawful various practices connected to obtaining and financing housing accommodations, among other things, if those practices discriminate based on specified characteristics. Existing law creates the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to administer and enforce these provisions. This bill would add political affiliation as a protected characteristic in connection with the above-described employment and housing provisions of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. (3) Existing law prohibits an employer from coercing or influencing its employees to adopt or refrain from adopting any particular course or line of political action or activity. This bill would prohibit an employer from taking an adverse employment action against an employee or applicant for employment based on their political affiliation or lack of political affiliation or their membership or association with a political organization, as specified.
Existing law requires that every building or structure, and every portion thereof, be designed and constructed to resist stresses produced by lateral forces as provided in the State Building Standards Code. Existing law requires city and county building departments to enforce these provisions and prohibits a person from constructing a building subject to these requirements without obtaining a written permit for that purpose from the appropriate enforcement agency. Existing law excludes certain buildings from these requirements, including a building not intended primarily for occupancy by human beings and located entirely outside the limits of a city or city and county. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these exclusions.
Existing law promotes and develops the welfare of workers in California to improve working conditions and advance opportunities for profitable employment. Existing law regulates the wages, hours, and working conditions of any worker employed in any occupation, trade, or industry. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation to ensure certain rights and benefits for telecommuting employees.
Existing law provides that an invention developed on an employee's own time belongs to the employee and not the employer. An employer is required to give notice, as specified, to an employee if the employment contract contains a requirement that inventions by an employee be assigned to the employer. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to these notice provisions.
