(1) The United States and California Constitutions guarantee all persons the right to equal protection of the laws. The California Constitution further recognizes the right of all persons to pursue and obtain safety, happiness, and privacy, guarantees an individual's reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, and prohibits disqualification of a person from entering or pursuing a business, profession, vocation, or employment because of, among other things, sex. This bill would require, under all state laws, that any provision that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, discrimination on the basis of gender, or similar discrimination be interpreted to prohibit sex discrimination. The bill would define "sex discrimination" to include, among other things, discrimination based on any of specified actual or perceived characteristics or actions, including based on degree of conformity to sex or gender stereotypes. This bill would provide that this interpretation reflects the existing protections of specified state constitutional laws, as described above. The bill would require these provisions to be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes of these constitutional protections. The bill would make related findings and declarations. (2) Existing law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act (act) , provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are entitled to full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments regardless of their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability status, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status. That act defines "sex" to include, among other things, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth. This bill would further define, for purposes of the act, "sex" to include any characteristics set forth under the above-described definition of "sex discrimination." (3) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , makes certain discriminatory employment and housing practices unlawful, and authorizes a person claiming to be aggrieved by an alleged unlawful practice to file a verified complaint with the Civil Rights Department. The FEHA defines various terms in connection with unlawful practices, including the term "sex." This bill would further define "sex" to include any characteristics set forth under the above-described definition of "sex discrimination." (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 51 of the Civil Code proposed by AB 1940 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1940 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 12926 of the Government Code proposed by AB 1940 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1940 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (5) This bill would include certain provisions that become operative only if AB 1940 is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2027, and amends Section 12926 of the Government Code. In that regard, the bill would expand the above-described definition of "sex discrimination" to include discrimination based on actual or perceived perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause or medical conditions related to perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law authorizes the division, which is headed by the Labor Commissioner, to enforce the Labor Code and all labor laws of the state, the enforcement of which is not specifically vested in any other officer, board, or commission. This bill would, with certain exceptions, prohibit an employer from using a workplace surveillance tool that uses artificial intelligence to, among other things, collect neural data or recognize an individual's emotional state. The bill would define an employer to include a governmental entity, including, among other entities, charter cities and the University of California. This bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor to enforce the bill's provisions. The bill would subject an employer who violates the bill's provisions to a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation. The bill would define various terms for purposes of its provisions. This bill would exempt from its provisions an employer's use of a workplace surveillance tool in specified operations where the use of a workplace surveillance tool is reasonable necessary to comply with a federal statute, federal regulation, or binding federal contract relating to the development of aircraft for use in the national airspace or the development of products or services for national security, military, space, or defense purposes. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act makes specified employment practices unlawful, including the harassment of an employee directly by the employer or indirectly by agents of the employer with the employer's knowledge. Under existing law, the Civil Rights Department administers these provisions. Existing law requires a specified employer with 5 or more employees to, by January 1, 2021, provide at least 2 hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all nonsupervisory employees in California and, after that date, once every 2 years. Existing law requires an employer to include prevention of abusive conduct as a component of that training and education. This bill would require, beginning on January 1, 2028, if a state agency provides any type of compensation, salary, or stipend to a state agency official of that agency, that all state agency officials of that agency receive training on responding to hate, as prescribed. The bill would define "state agency official" to mean a state elected official for that purpose. The bill would require at least one hour of training and education for a state agency official within the first 6 months of taking office or commencing employment, and every 2 years thereafter. The bill would authorize a state agency or an association of state agencies to offer one or more training courses, or sets of self-study materials with tests, to meet these requirements. The bill would authorize a state agency to develop its own training that meets the requirements or direct elected officials to complete a training developed by the department. The bill would require the department to develop or obtain an online training course on responding to hate and make the course available on its internet website. Existing law requires local agency officials, as defined, to receive sexual harassment prevention training and education if the local agency provides any type of compensation, salary, or stipend to those officials. Existing law requires the training and education to include practical examples aimed at instructing the local agency official in the prevention of sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. This bill would additionally require, beginning on January 1, 2028, the above-described training and education to include for any elected local agency official, as a component of the training and education, anti-hate speech training, as described. The bill would authorize an elected local agency official to take a training developed for state agency officials pursuant to the bill to satisfy the anti-hate speech training requirement. By imposing new requirements on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law authorizes the division, which is headed by the Labor Commissioner, to enforce the Labor Code and all labor laws of the state the enforcement of which is not specifically vested in any other officer, board, or commission. This bill would limit the use of workplace surveillance tools, as defined, by employers, including by prohibiting an employer from monitoring or surveilling employees in a bathroom located in the workplace, except as specified. The bill would provide an employee with the right to leave behind workplace surveillance tools that are on their person or in their possession when entering a bathroom, except as specified. This bill would authorize the commissioner to enforce the bill's provisions, as prescribed, and would authorize a public prosecutor to bring specified enforcement actions. The bill would subject an employer who violates the bill to a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Existing law requires a farm labor contractor to be licensed by the Labor Commissioner and to comply with specified employment laws applicable to farm labor contractors. Existing law provides that a person who violates the above-described provision is subject to a civil penalty, including, for any initial citation, $100 for each farmworker employed by the unlicensed person, plus $100 for each calendar day that a violation occurs, for a total penalty not to exceed $10,000. This bill would instead provide that a person who violates employment laws applicable to farm labor contractors, unless otherwise specified, is subject to a civil penalty, including, for any initial citation, $100 for each farmworker employed by the unlicensed person or licensed farm labor contractor, plus $100 for each calendar day that a violation occurs, for a total penalty not to exceed $10,000. Existing law prohibits the Labor Commissioner from issuing or renewing a license to act as a farm labor contractor unless specified requirements are met. Existing law requires an applicant for the issuance or renewal of a farm labor contractor license to have deposited with the Labor Commissioner a surety bond to be payable for, among other things, interest on wages and for any damages arising from violation of orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission and for any other monetary relief awarded to an agricultural worker as a result of a violation of specified employment laws. Existing law requires the amount of the surety bond to be based on the size of the person's annual payroll for all employees, and requires, for payrolls up to $500,000, a $25,000 bond, for payrolls of $500,000 to $2,000,000, a $50,000 bond, and for payrolls greater than $2,000,000, a $75,000 bond. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to require documentation of the size of the person's annual payroll for purposes of these provisions, as provided. This bill would instead require, for payrolls up to $500,000, a $50,000 bond, for payrolls of $500,000 to $2,000,000, a $100,000 bond, and for payrolls greater than $2,000,000, a $150,000 bond. The bill would require the bond amounts to be deposited when a farm labor contractor first registers or files the application for their first annual renewal. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to, among other things, include bond information on the public farm labor contractor license database, as described.
The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act establishes the California Workforce Development Board to assist the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce. Existing law requires the board to administer, promote, expand, and provide field assistance for high road training partnerships, defined as an initiative or project that models strategies for developing industry-based, worker-focused training partnerships, including labor-management partnerships. Existing law requires high road training partnerships to demonstrate job quality standards and employment practices that include, among other things, adoption of mechanisms to include worker voice and agency in the workplace. This bill would require the board, when awarding grants for a high road training partnership program or any successor program, to provide a scoring preference to an applicant that is either a bona fide labor-management cooperation committee, as defined, or is an entity applying on behalf of, or in cooperation with, a bona fide labor-management cooperation committee, as specified. The bill would require the board to determine the amount of the scoring preference provided and to incorporate that preference into program guidelines and grant solicitations.
Existing law requires every state agency to develop and implement a telecommuting plan as part of its telecommuting program in work areas where telecommuting is identified as being both practical and beneficial to the organization. Existing law requires the Department of General Services to establish a unit for purposes of overseeing telecommuting programs that is required to, among other things, develop and update policy, procedures, and guidelines to assist agencies in the planning and implementation of telecommuting programs. Existing law requires the department to establish criteria for evaluating the state's telecommuting program. Existing law defines "telecommuting" for purposes of those provisions. This bill would revise and recast those provisions. The bill would replace the term "telecommuting" with "telework," as defined. The bill would also require the Department of General Services to establish a telework dashboard that displays the cost-effectiveness and efficiency benefits of state telework programs, including documenting annual savings to the state of reduced office space and operating costs. The bill would additionally require each state agency, every 10 years, to evaluate its telework program to ensure that it aligns with the state agency's unique operational needs to carry out its programmatic missions and to help recruit and retain a qualified workforce. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law establishes, until July 1, 2027, the Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Pilot Program, to be administered by the Employment Development Department (department) , for the purpose of addressing employment dislocations associated with oil, gas, and related industries. That program requires the department, using funds to be appropriated by the Legislature for purposes of the program, to award grants on a competitive basis to qualified applicants, as specified, for specified eligible activities. This bill would extend the program indefinitely by removing the July 1, 2027, repeal date. The bill would require the department to implement and administer the program only to the extent that funding is appropriated by the Legislature, as specified.
The California Constitution grants the retirement board of a public employee retirement system plenary authority and fiduciary responsibility for investment of moneys and administration of the retirement fund and system. These provisions qualify this grant of powers by reserving to the Legislature the authority to prohibit investments if it is in the public interest and the prohibition satisfies standards of fiduciary care and loyalty required of a retirement board. Existing law prohibits the boards of the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) and the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) from making certain new investments or renewing existing investments of public employee retirement funds, including in a thermal coal company, as defined. Existing law provides that a board is not required to take any action regarding those investments unless the board determines in good faith that the action is consistent with the board's fiduciary responsibilities established in the California Constitution. This bill would request the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center to conduct an independent study to analyze the extent of labor standards protections in California real estate and infrastructure development projects funded through the real asset portfolios of PERS and STRS. The bill would request that the study and a report of its findings be completed and provided to the Legislature and the Department of Finance by January 1, 2028, as specified.
Existing property tax law, pursuant to constitutional authorization, provides for a "welfare exemption" for property used exclusively for religious, hospital, scientific, or charitable purposes and that is owned or operated by certain types of nonprofit entities, if certain qualifying criteria are met. Existing law also provides, until January 1, 2027, that property is within the welfare exemption if that property is owned by a community land trust, as defined, otherwise qualifying for the welfare exemption, and specified conditions are met, including that the property is being or will be developed or rehabilitated as housing, as specified. Existing law, however, makes community land trusts liable for property tax for the years for which the property was exempt from taxation if the property was not developed or rehabilitated, or if the development or rehabilitation is not in the course of construction, by January 1, 2027, for property acquired before January 1, 2022, or within 5 years of the lien date following acquisition of the property, for property acquired on and after January 1, 2022. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2032. The bill would make various conforming changes, including with respect to the lien dates for which the exemption applies. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature to apply those requirements to the above-described exemption and would set forth specified information relating to those requirements. In that regard, the bill would require the assessor to provide the State Board of Equalization with certain information and would require the assessor to retain that information, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local tax officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Existing law requires the state to reimburse local agencies annually for certain property tax revenues lost as a result of any exemption or classification of property for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding those provisions, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse local agencies for property tax revenues lost by them pursuant to the bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
