Existing law, the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, administered by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) , provides for negotiations concerning wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment between a higher education employer, as defined, and representatives of recognized employee organizations. Existing law grants higher education employees the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations of their own choosing for the purpose of representation on all matters of employer-employee relations and for the purpose of meeting and conferring with their employer. Existing law authorizes an employer and an exclusive representative who enter into a written memorandum of understanding to agree to procedures for final and binding arbitration of disputes that may arise under the memorandum of understanding or between the parties. Existing law makes it unlawful for the higher education employer to, among other things, refuse or fail to meet and confer with an exclusive representative. This bill would, with respect to arbitrations over violations of a collective bargaining agreement for the contracting out of bargaining unit work, make it an unfair practice for a higher education employer to, among other things, circumvent or disregard an arbitrator's decision by extending or renewing an existing contract or entering into a new contract for the same or similar services at the same location, or violating a contract term already interpreted by an arbitrator to prohibit the employer's conduct. This bill would prohibit PERB, among other things, from deferring repeat offenses in the above-described cases to subsequent arbitration proceedings. The bill would require remedies for a violation of these provisions to include the charging party's attorney's fees and costs.
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, except as specified, makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer with 5 or more employees to include on any application for employment, before the employer makes a conditional offer of employment to the applicant, any question that seeks the disclosure of an applicant's conviction history, to consider the conviction history of the applicant until after the employer has made a conditional offer of employment to the applicant, or to distribute information about an arrest not followed by conviction, referral to or participation in a pretrial or posttrial diversion program, or convictions that have been sealed, dismissed, expunged, or statutorily eradicated or any conviction for which the convicted person has received a full pardon or has been issued a certificate of rehabilitation while conducting a conviction history background check in connection with an application for employment, as specified. This bill would define the term "conviction or arrest record," for these purposes. The bill would include among those things that it is unlawful for an employer with 5 or more employees to do while conducting a conviction history background check in connection with an application for employment, asking any question that directly or indirectly seeks consent for a conviction history background check or requesting consent for or beginning a conviction history background check before providing the applicant with a list of all essential job duties, requiring a job applicant to cover the cost of a conviction history background check, or requiring any time before or after the conditional job offer, that an applicant self-disclose conviction history or provide the employer with any documentary evidence related to conviction history or rehabilitation, as specified. Existing law requires an employer that intends to deny an applicant a position of employment solely or in part because of the applicant's conviction history to make an individualized assessment of whether the applicant's conviction history has a direct and adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job that justify denying the applicant the position considering specified factors. This bill, instead, would prohibit an employer from denying an applicant a position of employment or taking any other adverse action solely or in part because of the applicant's conviction history unless the employer first, reasonably and in good faith, demonstrates via an individualized assessment, that the applicant's conviction history has a direct and adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job that justifies denying the applicant the position and it complies with a specified process. The bill would require the employer to commit the results of the individualized assessment to writing if it makes a decision to deny a position of employment or takes any adverse action. The bill would specify that it is not an adverse action for an employer to temporarily suspend an employee, with pay and for a reasonable amount of time, while the employer complies with the requirements of these provisions. Existing law makes these provisions inapplicable to a position as a farm labor contractor, as specified or to a position where an employer or agent thereof is required by any state, federal, or local law to conduct criminal background checks for employment purposes or to restrict employment based on criminal history. This bill would remove the exemption for farm labor contractors.
Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and provides that one of the functions of the department is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. This bill would require the department, in consultation with the Department of Managed Health Care, the Department of Insurance, the Department of Health Care Access and Information, and the Office of Health Care Affordability, to conduct a comparable worth study to examine and compare compensation and reimbursement for behavioral health providers with compensation and reimbursement for similarly situated medical-surgical providers. The bill would require the study to analyze compensation and reimbursement across specified payment flows, including payments made by health care service plans and health insurers directly to behavioral health providers and medical-surgical providers, and payments made to intermediaries and health systems for behavioral health services and medical-surgical services. The bill would require the department to take certain actions in conducting the study, including developing a methodology for determining which behavioral health provider roles are comparable to which medical-surgical provider roles. The bill would require a health care service plan or health insurer to report certain data to the department with respect to payments made directly to providers and payments made to intermediaries and health systems. The bill would also require specified intermediaries and health systems to report certain data to the department relating to payments received and payments made. The bill would make an entity that fails to comply with the reporting requirements subject to civil penalty, as prescribed. The bill would require the department and the other state entities listed above to protect the confidentiality of any propriety or commercially sensitive information submitted pursuant to the bill, as provided. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, to submit a report to the Legislature containing the findings of the study. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state under the administration of community college district governing boards. Existing law prohibits a person from being subjected to discrimination on the basis of specified attributes, including, among others, disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, or immigration status, in a program or activity conducted by a postsecondary educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance or enrolls students who receive state student financial aid, including, among others, community colleges. This bill would require the board of governors, within one year of appropriation, to enter into a contract with a managing entity, as defined, to administer on behalf of the California Community Colleges external resolution services for civil rights compliance, including, among other services, developing and recommending a nondiscrimination policy, assisting the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges in developing an annual campus discrimination prevention training program for students and employees, and addressing grievances and complaints alleging discrimination, as specified. The bill would also require the board of governors to approve the nondiscrimination policy recommended by the managing entity and require the governing boards of community college districts to adopt the policy, as provided. The bill would further require community college districts, within one year of appropriation, to designate a staff person as a civil rights coordinator tasked with specified duties, including, among others, responding to complaints alleging discrimination and maintaining a record system of files on those complaints, as specified. By imposing new duties on community college districts, 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. This bill, for the 2026–27 fiscal year, would appropriate $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the California Community Colleges to fund external resolution services for civil rights compliance provided by the managing entity, as provided.
Existing law, the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act, declares the intent of the Legislature to increase the number of students and residents receiving quality education and training in specified primary care specialties and as primary care physician's assistants, primary care nurse practitioners, and registered nurses. This bill would require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to maintain a New Nursing Graduate Support and Placement Program to award program grants to community college associate degree of nursing programs, through which support grants would be awarded to recent graduates for loan repayment assistance, relocation, transportation, housing assistance, childcare, and other financial support. The bill would specify grant eligibility criteria for community colleges and recent graduates. The bill would require the department to consider labor standards of hospital sites that employ support grant applicants when determining grant distribution. Implementation of these provisions would be contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would also express the intent of the Legislature to support and strengthen existing programs that train registered nurses under the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act.
Existing law provides for various employment programs to assist formerly incarcerated individuals in finding and retaining employment, including the Pre-Release Construction Trades Certificate Program administered by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Prison to Employment Program administered by the California Workforce Development Board. Existing law establishes the California Workforce Development Board as the body responsible for assisting 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. This bill would, by January 1, 2028, require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in partnership with the Department of Industrial Relations, to establish the Preapprenticeship Pathways to Employment Pilot Program. The bill would, until January 1, 2032, provide incarcerated individuals access to preapprenticeship training in the skilled construction and building trades. The bill would require the program to provide, among other things, instruction based on the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum and content coordinated with joint apprenticeship training committees. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement the program at one men's facility and one women's facility. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, beginning January 1, 2029, to annually report certain data regarding participation in the program to the Legislature.
Existing law regulates the operation of ports and harbors. Existing law requires a person providing labor or services for remuneration to be considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that certain conditions are satisfied, including that the person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact. This bill would require a trucking company, and a truck driver who is not classified as an employee by a trucking company, to provide to a port, defined to mean the Port of Long Beach or the Port of Los Angeles, certain information, including, with respect to a trucking company, a sworn affirmation by the trucking company that the trucking company is withholding all required taxes from the wages of any truck driver who is considered an employee under state law, as specified. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require, beginning January 1, 2027, that information to be made publicly available by the port. The bill would require a trucking company to update a port within 30 days of a change to its operation that results in more than 50% of its employees being replaced by independent contractors and would impose a civil penalty of $5,000 for failure to do so. The bill would make a person who provides false or misleading information for the purpose of representing compliance with those requirements liable for a civil penalty of $20,000, as prescribed. This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2027, a port, on a quarterly basis, to publish on its internet website specified information regarding each truck that entered the port during the prior quarter. The bill would require a port, upon request of the Labor Commissioner, to provide to the Labor Commissioner additional information in the possession of the port regarding a truck that entered the port. By imposing new duties on a port, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law provides that the California Workforce Development Board is responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system, including the development of a state plan to serve as a framework for, among other things, training programs to address the state's economic, demographic, and workforce needs. Existing law, in order to support the plan, requires the board to, among other things, establish initial and subsequent eligibility criteria for an eligible training provider list, in accordance with specified federal law. This bill would prohibit an approved training provider from being removed from the eligible training provider list if the provider has submitted verification of completion of continued eligibility requirements through a local workforce development board, except as provided. The bill would require continued eligibility review to be conducted once every 2 fiscal years, in a manner determined by the Employment Development Department.
Existing law establishes in the Department of Industrial Relations the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement under the direction of the Labor Commissioner and authorizes the Labor Commissioner to investigate employee complaints and recover civil penalties for violations of labor law, as prescribed. Existing law requires an employer who pays wages to a resident employee for services performed either within or without this state, or to a nonresident employee for services performed in this state, to deduct and withhold from those wages a sum which is substantially equivalent to the amount of tax reasonably estimated to be due under the Personal Income Tax Law resulting from the inclusion in the gross income of the employee of the wages which were subject to withholding. Existing law requires the Employment Development Department to have the powers and duties necessary to administer the reporting, collection, refunding to the employer, and enforcement of taxes required to be withheld by employers, as described above. This bill would require, within 60 days of a final judgment being entered against an employer requiring payment to an employee or to the state, as specified, the judgment debtor employer to provide documentation to the Labor Commissioner that the judgment is fully satisfied, a certain bond has been posted, or the judgment debtor entered into an agreement for the judgment to be paid in installments, as prescribed, and is in compliance with that agreement. The bill would make a judgment debtor employer who fails to comply with that provision liable for a civil penalty. The bill would require, if a judgment debtor employer does not comply with that provision, the Labor Commissioner to provide written notice to the judgment debtor employer that the Labor Commissioner will submit the unsatisfied judgment to the Tax Support Division of the Employment Development Department as a notice of potential tax fraud, as prescribed, and that the civil penalty is due within 90 days of the notice.
This measure would condemn decisions by the administrations of President Donald J. Trump to terminate or curtail Temporary Protected Status designations for people from specified nations, denounce federal policies that strip lawful status from long-residing individuals, as specified, and urge Congress to enact bipartisan legislation that provides a path to permanent residency and citizenship for individuals with Temporary Protected Status.
