Prior law, until January 1, 2024, required the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the California Workforce Development Board to oversee a stakeholder process to develop recommendations on how best to mitigate the employment impacts of automation at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. That prior law created an industry panel consisting of 10 members, as specified, within the agency to inform the stakeholder process. That prior law authorized the California Workforce Development Board to contract the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Labor Center to facilitate implementation and authorized the UCLA Labor Center to commission expert research and testimony to supplement the stakeholder process. That prior law required the industry panel to provide an annual update on the stakeholder process at a regularly scheduled meeting of the California Workforce Development Board. That prior law required the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the California Workforce Development Board, upon the completion of the stakeholder process, but not later than July 1, 2023, to issue findings and recommendations on the most effective ways to implement policies and programs to mitigate the employment impacts of automation and the transitioning of seaport operations to low- and zero-emission operations on workers and individuals living in communities adjacent to the ports. This bill would reinstate the above-described provisions until January 1, 2029, to determine how to best mitigate national security, cybersecurity, workforce, and economic impacts of automation at California seaports. The bill would instead create an industry panel consisting of 17 members, as specified. The bill would require the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the California Workforce Development Board, upon the completion of the stakeholder process, but not later than July 1, 2027, to issue findings and recommendations, as described above. The bill would condition the implementation of these provisions on an appropriation by the Legislature for this express purpose.
(1) Existing law, the California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013, establishes various limits on retirement benefits generally applicable to a public employee retirement system, as specified. Existing law requires a public employee who is a member of a public retirement system to forfeit accrued rights and benefits in the public retirement system if the individual is convicted of certain felonies, including for conduct arising out of or in the performance of their official duties, relating to salary, disability retirement, service retirement, or other benefits, or that is committed against a child, as specified. Existing law limits this forfeiture to rights and benefits earned or accrued from the earliest date of the commission of the felony. This bill would require a correctional officer or other prison staff member employed by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation who is a current member of a public retirement system, convicted of sexually assaulting an inmate within the prison system, to forfeit all rights and benefits in the public retirement system, as prescribed. The bill would also require a correctional officer or other prison staff member employed by the department who first becomes a member of a public retirement system on or after January 1, 2026, who is convicted of sexually assaulting an inmate within the state prison system, to forfeit all rights and benefits in the retirement system. The bill would establish procedures governing the forfeiture process, including authorizing a public retirement system to assess a public employer a reasonable amount for reimbursement of specified costs. The bill would require a public retirement system to implement these provisions in a manner that protects an innocent or former spouse and is consistent with existing law governing the division of community property. (2) Existing law provides the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with jurisdiction over prisons and institutions, including, among others, the California Correctional Institution in the City of Tehachapi and the Central California Women's Facility, and sets forth its powers and duties regarding the administration of correctional facilities and the care and custody of inmates. Existing law also authorizes the secretary of the department to construct and equip suitable buildings, structures, and facilities for, among others, the California Correctional Institution in the City of Tehachapi for the confinement of males under the custody of the secretary. This bill would require the department to construct and establish one new building with 100 additional single-cell housing units at the Central California Women's Facility state prison located in the City of Chowchilla for the confinement of women under the custody of the secretary. The bill would also require the department to install fixed cameras by January 1, 2028, in all designated locations that have been ordered by the court or the Legislature, install thermal sensor cameras that track body movements in inmate bathrooms, and eliminate solo shifts for correctional officers, in women's state prison facilities. The bill would also authorize a correctional lieutenant on the site of a state prison facility to grant permission to an inmate, upon the inmate's request, to be transferred to restrictive housing.
Existing law makes every person who fails to pay the wages of each employee subject to a specified penalty. Existing law makes the initial violation subject to a $100 penalty and each subsequent violation, or any willful or intentional violation, subject to a $200 penalty plus 25% of the amount unlawfully withheld. Existing law requires the penalty to either be recovered by an employee as a statutory penalty or by the Labor Commissioner as a civil penalty, as prescribed. This bill also would permit the $200 penalty for each subsequent violation, or any willful or intentional violation, to be recovered through an independent civil action, as specified.
This measure would strongly condemn and denounce mass immigration raids that target immigrant workers and families in California and the engagement of the military in immigration enforcement operations and in response to community protests. This measure would affirm support for safeguarding the rights and safety of all Californians, regardless of immigration status, and support, among other things, the expansion of legal services and emergency response resources to protect workers, children, and families affected by immigration enforcement.
Existing law provides that in order for the state to recruit skilled firefighters for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, it is the policy of the state to consider prevailing salaries and benefits prior to making salary recommendations. Existing law requires the Department of Human Resources, in order to provide comparability in pay, to take into consideration the salary and benefits of other jurisdictions employing 75 or more full-time firefighters who work in California. This bill would require the state to pay firefighters who are rank-and-file members of State Bargaining Unit 8, employed by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, within 15% of the average salary for corresponding ranks in 20 listed California fire departments. The bill would require the state and the exclusive representative for State Bargaining Unit 8 to jointly survey annually and calculate the estimated average salaries for those fire departments. The bill would also require the Department of Human Resources, on or before January 1, 2027, to conduct and report to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection a cursory survey on the salaries and benefits for the prior year of each of the fire chiefs for 5 listed California fire departments. The bill would provide that when determining compensation for uniformed classifications of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, it is the policy of the state to consider the salary of corresponding ranks within the comparable jurisdictions listed, as well as other factors, including internal comparisons. The bill would require any salary increase for firefighters under these provisions to be implemented through a memorandum of understanding, in accordance with specified procedures governing collective bargaining agreements. The bill would include legislative findings and declarations related to its provisions.
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, prohibits various forms of employment and housing discrimination, including various types of discrimination because of national origin. Existing law empowers the Civil Rights Department to investigate and prosecute complaints alleging unlawful practices. Existing labor law also prohibits an employer or other person or entity from engaging in, or to directing another person or entity to engage in, unfair immigration-related practices against a person for exercising specified rights. Existing law defines unfair immigration-related practices for these purposes. Existing law additionally makes it unlawful for an employer to request more or different immigration documents than are required under federal law, to refuse to honor documents tendered that reasonably appear to be genuine, and to take other related actions concerning employee work authorization documents. Existing law authorizes an applicant for employment or an employee who is subject to an unlawful act that is prohibited by these provisions, or a representative of that applicant for employment or employee, to file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. Existing law establishes specified civil penalties for a violation of these provisions. This bill would require each employee, upon request, to be released by their employer for up to 5 unpaid working days within a 12-month period in order to attend appointments, interviews, adjudications, legal proceedings, detainment, or any other meeting at which the employee's presence is required concerning the employee's immigration status, work authorization, visa status, or any other immigration-related matter, as specified. The bill would also require a postintroductory employee, as defined, whose employment has been terminated due to an inability to provide documentation of proper work authorization, to be immediately reinstated to their former classification without loss in seniority, subject to producing proper work authorization, except as provided. The bill would also require an employer, if the employee demonstrates a need for additional time, to rehire the employee into the next available opening in the employee's former classification, as a new hire without retaining seniority, subject to the employee providing proper work authorization and meeting certain other conditions. This bill would require an employer that is notified that an employee has been detained or incarcerated as a result of pending immigration or deportation proceedings, to place the employee on an unpaid leave of absence for a period pending the employee's release from detainment or incarceration and not to exceed 12 months. If the employee is released and provides appropriate work authorization documentation within the period of the authorized unpaid leave of absence, the bill would require the employer to return the employee to their former job classification without loss of seniority, except as specified. This bill would apply the above requirements to a public or private employer, but would exempt a public or private employer with 25 or fewer employees. The bill would prohibit each public or private employer from disciplining, discharging, or discriminating against an employee because of national origin or immigration status, or solely because the employee is subject to immigration or deportation proceedings, except as required to comply with the law. The bill would prohibit an employee subject to immigration or deportation proceedings from being discharged solely because of those proceedings, so long as the employee is authorized to work in the United States. This bill would provide that its provisions do not invalidate a collective bargaining agreement or a memorandum of understanding that contains a provision addressing rehire or reinstatement rights or leave rights regarding employees who are subject to immigration proceedings, nor does it supersede the seniority provisions of a collective bargaining agreement or a memorandum of understanding. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill's provisions. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2029, and would repeal them on January 1, 2030.
Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of employment. Existing law provides certain methods for determining workers' compensation benefits payable to a worker or the worker's dependents for purposes of permanent total disability or permanent partial disability that include a determination of the percentage of permanent disability incurred. Existing law requires that, for injuries incurred before January 1, 2013, in determining the percentages of permanent disability, account be taken of the nature of the physical injury or disfigurement, the occupation of the injured employee, and the injured employee's age at the time of the injury, and requires that specified factors be considered in determining an employee's diminished earning capacity for these purposes. For purposes of these provisions, "nature of the physical injury or disfigurement" incorporates the descriptions and measurements of physical impairment and the corresponding percentages of impairments published in the American Medical Association (AMA) Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (5th Edition) . For injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2013, in determining the percentages of permanent disability, existing law requires the same factors be taken into account but removes from consideration the employee's diminished future earning capacity and, instead, incorporates an adjustment factor of 1.4, as specified. Existing law also establishes the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. Under existing law, if a permanently, partially disabled employee receives a subsequent compensable injury resulting in additional permanent disability, then that employee receives compensation from the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund. Existing law requires, when applicable, the additional permanent disability resulting from the subsequent injury to be equal to 35% or more of total, when considered alone and without regard to, or adjustment for, the occupation or the age of the employee. For purposes of determining permanent disability resulting from a subsequent injury, this bill would measure permanent disability, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2005, and prior to January 1, 2013, by the whole person impairment rating as determined in accordance with the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (5th Edition) , after adjustment for diminished future earning capacity and without regard to, or adjustment for, the occupation or age of the employee. For injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2013, the bill would measure permanent disability in the same manner as an injury occurring on or after January 1, 2005, and prior to January 1, 2013, except that an adjustment for diminished future earning capacity is replaced by the 1.4 adjustment factor. The bill would state that these provisions are declarative of existing law. To the extent the bill changes the eligibility requirements for and calculation for payments made from the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would, for compensable subsequent injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026, require, for purposes of determining eligibility for and the amount of an award of special additional compensation, the existence of the prior permanent partial disability at the time of the subsequent compensable injury to be determined by substantial evidence, based on medical records, testimony, or other evidence, that the prior permanent partial disability predated the subsequent compensable injury and that the prior permanent partial disability resulted in loss of earnings, interfered with work activities, or otherwise impacted the ability of the employee to perform work activities or activities of daily living. For these compensable subsequent injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026, the bill would require an employee to file an application for special additional compensation pursuant to these provisions within 5 years from the date of the subsequent compensable injury or one year from the date that the level of permanent disability arising from the subsequent compensable injury is determined by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) , whichever occurs later. The bill would require the administrative director to create and maintain a database of qualified medical evaluators to perform evaluations for claims filed for a subsequent compensable injury. The bill would make conforming changes. Existing law requires the WCAB to fix and award the amounts of special additional compensation to be paid and to direct the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) to pay the additional compensation awarded. Existing law authorizes the additional compensation to be paid only from funds appropriated for these purposes. Existing law authorizes SCIF to reimburse itself for specified costs from this appropriation. This bill would replace SCIF with the Director of Industrial Relations, as trustee of the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, as the entity to pay the additional compensation awarded by the WCAB. The bill would delete SCIF's authorization to reimburse itself for specified costs.
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and sets forth its powers and duties relating to enforcement of civil rights laws and assistance to communities in resolving disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices. This bill, upon appropriation by the Legislature and commencing on or before the later of either July 1, 2026, or one year after the date of the appropriation, would require the department to create and implement statewide and regional radio, social media, and television campaigns for the purposes of discouraging discrimination. The bill would require the department to convene a working group to develop a plan to implement the campaigns above. The bill would exempt the working group from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. 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 a workers' compensation system to compensate employees for injuries sustained in the course of their employment. Existing law creates a disputable presumption that specified injuries sustained in the course of employment of a specified member of law enforcement or a specified first responder arose out of and in the course of employment. Existing law authorizes the Department of Industrial Relations to expend moneys that have been appropriated for the administration and enforcement of laws under its jurisdiction, as well as for the maintenance of any commission or office of the department, as specified. Existing law establishes the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund within the State Treasury. Existing law requires the director to levy a surcharge upon employers in order to fund, among other things, the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, existing law authorizes funds to be expended for, among other things, the Return-to-Work Program and the enforcement of the insurance coverage program. Existing law establishes a Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and sets forth various proceedings that are required to be brought forth before the board. Existing law provides that the appeals board is vested with full power, authority, and jurisdiction to try and determine finally all the matters specified in those proceedings subject only to the review by the courts, as specified. This bill would, until January 1, 2031, create a disputable presumption that a heat-related injury that develops within a specified timeframe after working outdoors for an employer in the agriculture industry that fails to comply with heat illness prevention standards, as defined, arose out of and came in the course of employment. The bill would require the appeals board to find in favor of the employee if the employer fails to rebut the presumption. The bill would specify that compensation awarded for heat-related injury to farmworkers is to include, among other things, medical treatment and disability. The bill would prohibit a determination by the appeals board from having any effect in certain investigations and would prohibit that determination from being admissible in proceedings before the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. The bill would establish the Farmworker Climate Change Heat Injury and Death Fund that would consist of a one-time transfer of $5,000,000 derived from nongeneral funds of the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund for the purpose of administrative costs associated with this presumption. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law requires that, except as specified, not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages be paid to workers employed on public works and imposes misdemeanor penalties for a willful violation of this requirement. Existing law defines "public works," for the purposes of regulating public works contracts, as, among other things, construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for, in whole or in part, out of public funds. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to investigate allegations that a contractor or subcontractor violated the law regulating public works projects, including the payment of prevailing wages. Existing law requires each contractor and subcontractor on a public works project to keep accurate payroll records, showing the name, address, social security number, work classification, straight time and overtime hours worked each day and week, and the actual per diem wages paid to each journeyman, apprentice, worker, or other employee employed by the contractor or subcontractor in connection with the public work. Existing law requires any copy of records made available for inspection as copies and furnished upon request to the public or any public agency to be marked or obliterated to prevent disclosure of an individual's name, address, and social security number but specifies that any copy of records made available to a Taft-Hartley trust fund for the purposes of allocating contributions to participants be marked or obliterated only to prevent disclosure of an individual's full social security number, as specified. This bill would require an owner or developer, as defined, undertaking any work, subject to the prevailing wage requirements, to make specified records available upon request to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, to multiemployer Taft-Hartley trust funds, and to joint labor-management committees, as specified. The bill would set forth timelines for the owner or developer to comply with a request for records and for a fund or committee to submit a complaint to the division in case of an owner's or developer's failure to comply. Under the latter circumstance, the bill would require the division to submit to the owner or developer a new written request for records, as specified. Under the bill, if the owner or developer fails to comply with the request from the division, they would be subject to penalties, to be deposited into the State Public Works Enforcement Fund, as specified. If a request for records is made, the bill would require that the request be made within 3 years of the completion of the work. The bill would require the Director of Industrial Relations to adopt rules governing the release of these records, as specified.
