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.
Existing law prohibits an employer or any other person from engaging in, or directing another person to engage in, an unfair immigration-related practice against a person for the purpose of, or with the intent of, retaliating against any person for exercising a right protected under state labor and employment laws or under a local ordinance applicable to employees, as specified. Existing law authorizes a civil action for equitable relief and damages or penalties, as specified, by an employee or other person who is the subject of an unfair immigration-related practice. This bill would expand the above-described prohibition to include retaliating against any person for exercising any right under any local, state, or federal statute or regulation applicable to employees, as defined, and would prohibit preventing a person from exercising such a right. The bill would also prohibit an employer or any other person from engaging in any other conduct, related to any person's perceived immigration status, that would reasonably tend to dissuade a person from engaging in conduct that the person has a legal right to engage in under any local, state, or federal statute or regulation applicable to employees, or to induce a person to engage in conduct that the person has a legal right to abstain from under any local, state, or federal statute or regulation applicable to employees. The bill would make an employer or other person who violates these provisions liable for a civil penalty not exceeding $10,000 per employee or person for each violation, as specified. The bill would also make related and conforming changes to these provisions.
Existing unemployment compensation disability law requires workers to pay contribution rates based on, among other things, wages received in employment and benefit disbursement, for payment into the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury. That fund is continuously appropriated for the purpose of providing disability benefits and making payment of expenses in administering those provisions. Existing law, the family temporary disability insurance program, provides up to 8 weeks of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or domestic partner, or to bond with a minor child within one year of birth or placement in connection with foster care or adoption, or to participate in a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of the individual's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States. Existing law defines "covered active duty" to mean, with respect to a member of the regular Armed Forces of the United States, duty during the deployment of the member with the regular armed forces to a foreign country and, with respect to a member of the reserve components of the Armed Forces of the United States, duty during the deployment of the member of those reserve components to a foreign country under a federal call or order to active duty. This bill would, starting upon specified changes to the Employment Development Department's integrated claims management system or on July 1, 2028, whichever occurs sooner, expand the definition of "covered active duty" to additionally include duty during training, deployment other than deployment to a foreign country, and, with respect to a member of the reserve components of the Armed Forces of the United States, a call or order to state active duty. By authorizing expenditures from the continuously appropriated fund for these expanded purposes, this bill would make an appropriation.
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 additionally require that, beginning January 1, 2028, the above-described training and education include, as a component of the training and education, anti-hate speech training, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority within the California Health and Human Services Agency, and requires the authority to coordinate state activities concerning emergency medical services. Existing law requires a public safety agency that provides "911" call processing services for emergency medical response, by January 1, 2027, to provide prearrival medical instructions to "911" callers requiring medical assistance, including, at a minimum, administration of naloxone for suspected narcotics overdoses. Existing law requires the authority to develop and adopt training, standards, and regulations for all prehospital emergency medical care personnel regarding the use and administration of naloxone hydrochloride and other opioid antagonists. Existing law makes any person who violates these provisions guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law grants the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is within the Department of Industrial Relations, jurisdiction over all employment and places of employment, and the power necessary to enforce and administer all occupational health and safety laws and standards. Exiting law requires the division, before December 1, 2027, to submit a draft rulemaking proposal to revise specified regulations on first aid materials and emergency medical services to require first aid materials in a workplace to include naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid antagonist approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to reverse opioid overdose and instructions for using the opioid antagonist. Existing law requires the standards board to consider for adoption revised standards for the standards described above on or before December 1, 2028. This bill would require an employer operating in this state that requires cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification training of its employees to also require those employees, except as specified, to take an online video module training on the use of naloxone to increase the rate of opioid overdose reversals, as prescribed. Because a violation of this provision would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the Emergency Medical Services Authority to review and approve the online video module trainings to ensure that the training content meets certain minimum standards. 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 generally prohibits an employer from employing an employee for a work period of more than 5 hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes. Existing law creates exceptions from this prohibition for employees in specified occupations, including employees of an electrical corporation, a gas corporation, a water corporation, or a local publicly owned electric utility covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement meeting certain conditions. Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with enforcement of these provisions. This bill would also create an exception from the above-described prohibition for employees who perform building maintenance work as a stationary engineer, as defined, covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement meeting certain conditions.
Existing law generally prohibits an employment contract from requiring a worker to pay certain penalties, fees, costs, or debts related to employment or education if the worker's employment or work relationship terminates, as provided. Existing law provides that a contract that is unlawful under that prohibition is void and contrary to public policy as a restraint of engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business. Existing law authorizes a worker, among other persons, to bring a civil action for specified civil penalties and relief for a violation of these provisions. Existing law applies these provisions to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2026. This bill would instead apply those provisions to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2027. The bill would establish exceptions to the above-described prohibition for contracts. Among these exceptions, the bill would except contracts for bonuses relating to specified recruitment and retention programs, and repayment obligations arising from advanced paid time off upon voluntary separation, as prescribed. The bill would further except certain affiliation contracts between a securities broker-dealer, insurance producer, or investment adviser and its agents or representatives that are registered and licensed, as specified, and their affiliates if the contract satisfies certain conditions. The bill would make related findings and declarations. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires every retail seller and manufacturer doing business in this state and having annual worldwide gross receipts that exceed $100,000,000 to disclose, as specified, its efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from its direct supply chain for tangible goods offered for sale. Existing law also requires a person that submits a bid or proposal to, or otherwise proposes to enter into or renew a contract with, a state agency with respect to any contract in the amount of $100,000 or more to certify, under penalty of perjury, at the time the bid or proposal is submitted or the contract is renewed that they have complied with the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, and that any policy that they have adopted against any sovereign nation or peoples recognized by the government of the United States is not used as a pretext for discrimination in violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act or the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require any business or enterprise that is doing business in the state that was in existence or whose predecessor company was in existence on or before December 31, 1964 and has annual worldwide gross receipts that exceed $100,000,000 to complete an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, verifying that it has searched through any and all records in its and its related entities', as defined, possession, control, and knowledge for records that the covered entity or its related entities bought or sold persons subjected to slavery, used persons subjected to slavery as collateral, provided loans to purchase persons subjected to slavery, insured such transactions or the persons subjected to slavery, or provided related or other services to aid or otherwise facilitate those transactions. The bill would set forth the contents of the affidavit, the timeline and manner of submission, and reporting requirements. This bill would require the Civil Rights Department to create a public, digital platform within one year after an appropriation is made, that would make available affidavits and records made pursuant to the bill and disaggregated data, as described. The bill would additionally require the above-described business or entity, that submits a bid or proposal to, or otherwise proposes to enter into or renew a contract with, a state agency, as described above, to additionally certify, under penalty of perjury, that they have submitted the affidavit in compliance with the above-described provisions. By requiring an affidavit and to certify under penalty of perjury regarding compliance with the above-described affidavit requirements, and thus expanding the crime of perjury, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a Women in Construction Priority Unit to, among other things, provide resources for employers and project owners, including public agencies, to improve construction worksite culture, address barriers to employment, and develop training and materials for workforce pipeline professionals specific to women and nonbinary individuals in construction. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the department to establish, through the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, the Equal Representation in Construction Apprenticeships Grant Program, and would state the goals of the program, including, among other things, providing women, nonbinary individuals, and underrepresented populations with opportunities to train for a construction career with greater access to preapprenticeship and apprenticeship programs that are registered with the division. The bill would authorize the department to issue rules, regulations, guidelines, policies, or procedures necessary to implement the bill's provisions described above.
Existing law authorizes an employer or collective bargaining representative of an employee who has suffered harassment, unlawful violence, or a credible threat of violence from any individual, to seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of the employee and, at the discretion of the court, any number of other employees at the workplace or at other workplaces of the employer. Existing law authorizes one or more representative parties to bring suit for the benefit of a class of parties if the question is one of a common or general interest, of many persons, or when the parties are numerous, and it is impracticable to bring them all before the court. This bill would authorize an employer to seek a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of all employees at the employer's workplace or a location at which a group of employees perform their primary job duties if harassment, unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence is directed at that workplace or location. The bill would not require an employer to name any individual employee as a protected party if the employer seeks a workplace violence restraining order on behalf of all employees at the employer's workplace or a location at which a group of employees perform their primary job duties. This bill would require the Judicial Council, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt or modify its forms, as specified. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by AB 2179 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2179 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure proposed by AB 1753 to be operative only if (1) this bill and AB 1753 are both enacted, (2) AB 2179 is not enacted or as enacted does not amend Section 527.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and (3) this bill is enacted last.