Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, grants agricultural employees the right to form and join labor organizations and engage in collective bargaining with respect to wages, terms of employment, and other employment conditions, and authorizes employees to elect exclusive bargaining representatives for these purposes. Existing law creates the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and prescribes its composition, duties, and powers. Existing law authorizes the board to hold hearings and conduct investigations and requires that certain procedures be the exclusive method of redressing unfair labor practices. Under existing law, any person who willfully resists, prevents, or interferes with a member of the board or its agents or agencies in the performance of their duties is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires the board to certify the results of an election conducted by secret ballot of employees in a collective bargaining unit to designate a collective bargaining representative, unless the board determines there are sufficient grounds to refuse to do so. Existing law further provides that if the board refuses to certify an election because of employer misconduct that would render slight the chances of a new election reflecting the free and fair choice of employees, the labor organization shall be certified as the bargaining representative for the bargaining unit. This bill would refer to the election by secret ballot process as a polling place election. The bill would establish alternative procedures to the polling place election and authorize a labor organization to be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of a bargaining unit through either a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election, as prescribed, dependent on whether an employer enrolls and agrees to a labor peace election for labor organization representation campaigns. The bill would provide that a labor peace election or a non-labor peace election permits a bargaining unit to summarily select a labor organization as its representative for collective bargaining purposes without using the existing polling place process. Under the bill, a labor peace election would be a mail ballot election and a non-labor peace election would establish a process for the submission of a petition with proof of majority support, subject to certification by the board. Among other provisions, the bill would require for both alternative procedures that an employer respond to the board with regard to a petition, including providing a specified list of employees to the board. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would establish a schedule for agricultural employers to indicate to the board whether they agree to a labor peace compact, defined to mean an agreement by the employer to, among other things, make no statements for or against union representation to its employees or publicly, in any written or oral form, at any time during employee hire, rehire, or orientation, or after certain documents regarding organization are filed with the board. The bill would prohibit a labor peace compact from prohibiting an employer from communicating truthful statements to employees regarding workplace policies or benefits, as specified. The bill would require the board to develop an online web-based labor peace election process that will allow employers to indicate their labor peace choice online, and that will allow labor organizations to see whether a specific agricultural employer has agreed to a labor peace election campaign. This bill would repeal the above provisions on January 1, 2028. This bill would prescribe civil penalties to be imposed upon an agricultural employer who commits an unfair labor practice in an amount not to exceed $10,000 for each violation, and would increase that sum to an amount not to exceed $25,000 for specified violations. The bill would require the board to consider specified factors in determining the amount of a civil penalty pursuant to these provisions. The bill would also authorize the board to impose personal liability for these penalties upon a director or officer of an employer in certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes a person aggrieved by the final order of the board granting or denying in whole or in part the relief sought for an unfair labor practice, to obtain a review of the order in a specified court of appeal by filing in the court a written petition requesting that the order of the board be modified or set aside. This bill would require an employer who appeals or petitions for a writ of review of any order of the board involving make-whole, backpay, or other monetary awards to employees, to post an appeal bond in the amount of the entire economic value of the order, as specified, and would provide for the bond to be forfeited under specified conditions. This bill would state that its provisions are severable. 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.
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Existing law authorizes the governing boards of 2 or more school districts to enter into an agreement, for a term not to exceed 5 school years, for the interdistrict attendance of pupils who are residents of the school districts. Existing law also authorizes the governing board of a school district to accept pupils from other school districts by adopting a resolution to become a school district of choice, as defined, in accordance with specified procedural requirements and limitations. This bill would authorize the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school to enter into an agreement with one or more local educational agencies to offer the same or similar corresponding individual courses and coursework to pupils from other local educational agencies who have been impacted by disruptions, cancellations, or teacher shortages in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics classes, or dual language immersion programs, as provided. The bill would require a local educational agency subject to the agreement to accept pupils through an unbiased process that prohibits an inquiry into, or evaluation or consideration of, specified pupil characteristics, as provided, to hold random drawings to determine approval for study when the number of pupils seeking a classroom opportunity exceeds the available number of seats in a classroom, as provided, and to publicly post certain information related to these opportunities. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, to evaluate the success of these local educational agency collaborations, as provided. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2029, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2030.
(1) Existing law authorizes the payment of unemployment compensation benefits and requires that they be made in accordance with regulations of the Director of Employment Development. Existing law generally requires the Employment Development Department to promptly pay benefits if claimants are eligible or to promptly deny benefits if they are ineligible. Existing law prohibits payment of unemployment compensation benefits for services performed by a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States, unless that person is an individual who was lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time the services were performed, was lawfully present for purposes of performing the services, or was permanently residing in the United States under color of law at the time the services were performed, as specified. This bill would establish, until January 1, 2026, the Excluded Workers Pilot Program, to be administered by the Employment Development Department upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of providing income assistance to excluded workers who are ineligible for the existing state or federal benefits administered by the department and who are unemployed. The bill would make individuals eligible to receive $300 per week for each week of unemployment, if the Director of Employment Development makes certain findings, as defined and specified. The bill would require the department to promulgate regulations to implement the program, including regulations providing for an application process, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from requesting or compelling certain information from individuals in connection with administering the program and would prohibit the department from retaining specified documents for longer than necessary to administer benefits. The bill would also prohibit, except as specified, disclosures of personal information, as defined. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2025, to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature that makes recommendations for establishing a permanent unemployment insurance benefit program for workers excluded from the unemployment insurance system based on their immigration status, as specified. (2) 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.
(1) Existing law provides for the establishment of various special districts that may support and finance housing development, including affordable housing special beneficiary districts that are authorized to promote affordable housing development with certain property tax revenues that a city or county would otherwise be entitled to receive. Existing law, the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Housing Finance Act, establishes the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority to raise, administer, and allocate funding for affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay area, as defined, and provide technical assistance at a regional level for tenant protection, affordable housing preservation, and new affordable housing production. This bill, the Los Angeles County Regional Housing Finance Act, would establish the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency and would state that the agency's purpose is to increase the supply of affordable housing in Los Angeles County by providing for significantly enhanced funding and technical assistance at a regional level for renter protections, affordable housing preservation, and new affordable housing production, as specified. The bill would require a board composed of 21 voting members and one nonvoting member from Los Angeles County, as specified, to govern the agency. This bill would permit the board to determine its organizational structure and to delegate specified powers. The bill would require the board to form an oversight committee composed of 11 members and one nonvoting member to assist in the development of funding guidelines, implementation of agency programs, and approval of an expenditure plan, as specified. The bill would require the board to provide for annual audits of the agency's general administration, accounts, and records, including an independent financial and performance audit for bonds secured by ad valorem property taxes, and provide for financial reports. The bill would include findings that the provisions proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities within Los Angeles County, including charter cities. This bill would authorize the agency to, among other things, raise and allocate new revenue, incur and issue bonds and other indebtedness, and place on the ballot in Los Angeles County, including all of its incorporated cities, funding measures, in accordance with applicable constitutional and statutory requirements, to raise and allocate funds to the county, the cities in the county, and other public agencies and affordable housing projects within its jurisdiction for purposes of preserving and enhancing existing housing, funding renter protection programs, and financing new construction of housing developments, as specified. In this regard, the bill would authorize the entity, among other things, to impose various special taxes, including a parcel tax and a documentary transfer tax, within its jurisdiction, and to issue bonds secured by the levy of ad valorem property taxes, in accordance with applicable constitutional requirements, and revenue bonds payable from the revenues of the agency, other than revenues generated from ad valorem property taxes. The bill would require that revenue generated by the agency pursuant to these provisions be used for specified housing purposes and would require the agency to distribute those funds in accordance with specified requirements, including the adoption of an annual plan by the board. This bill would require that revenue be allocated according to a geographic distribution schedule, as specified. 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 further 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. Under this bill, a construction or rehabilitation project receiving certain funding associated with the agency, as described, would constitute a public work for which prevailing wages are required to be paid. The bill would also provide that certain projects with 40 units or greater are eligible to receive funding or financing from the agency only if all construction and rehabilitation is subject to the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works PLA, as defined and specified, except that if a specific countywide project labor agreement, as defined, is negotiated, then the bill would provide that those projects are eligible for funding or financing from the agency only if all construction and rehabilitation is subject to that labor agreement rather than the Department of Public Works PLA, as specified. Because the willful violation of prevailing wage requirements when engaged in these public works projects would result in the imposition of misdemeanor penalties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA includes exemptions from its environmental review requirements for numerous categories of projects. This bill would exempt from the CEQA requirements certain actions taken by the agency. (3) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for Los Angeles County. (4) By adding to the duties of local officials with respect to elections procedures for revenue measures on behalf of the agency, 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 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 establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. The department is responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state, including, among others, the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program, which, among other things, provides rental assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services to ensure housing affordability to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness. This bill, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, would establish the House California Challenge Program, to be administered by the department, in partnership with the California Health and Human Services Agency, for the purpose of providing direct rental assistance to help persons who are experiencing homelessness obtain housing. The bill would require the department, upon appropriation of those funds by the Legislature, to allocate $1,000,000,000 for purposes of the program each fiscal year for 5 years, beginning with the 2022–23 fiscal year. The bill would require 10% of the funds to be awarded as grants to recipients, as defined, for the purpose of helping participants locate and obtain permanent housing and would require 80% of the funds to be allocated by the department for specified uses, including long-term rental assistance, master leasing of units, and short-term funds for prevention, self-resolution, and diversion services, as specified. The bill would authorize up to 10% of the funds to be used for administrative costs. Under the bill, and to the extent allowable under federal law, any assistance, services, or supports received pursuant to the program would not be considered income or a resource of the participant for purposes of determining eligibility for, or benefits pursuant to, any public assistance program. This bill would require a recipient that receives grant funds under the program to submit an annual report to the department that includes specified information, including ongoing tracking of the specific uses and expenditures of grant funds, the number of homeless individuals and households served by the grant funds, and outcome data for households served through program funds. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, as specified, to submit a report to specified Senate and Assembly committees that includes a summary of the reports submitted to the department by recipients and an evaluation of the outcomes and status of the program.
Existing law establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status. Existing law requires a private employer that has 100 or more employees and is required to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) pursuant to federal law to submit a pay data report to the department that contains specified employee information on or before March 31, 2021, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter. Existing law prescribes the information that must be included in the pay data report, including the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in specified job categories. Existing law requires employers with multiple establishments to submit a report for each establishment and a consolidated report that includes all employees. Existing law permits the department to develop, publish on an annual basis, and publicize aggregate reports, provided that the aggregate reports are reasonably calculated to prevent the association of any data with any individual business or person. Existing law provides that an employer is in compliance with the requirement that it submit a pay data report if it submits an EEO-1 to the department containing the same or substantially similar pay data information. Existing law permits the department to seek an order requiring an employer to comply with these provisions and permits it to recover the costs associated with seeking the order for compliance. This bill would, instead, require a private employer that has 100 or more employees to submit a pay data report to the department. This bill would revise the timeframe in which a private employer is required to submit this information to require that it be provided on or before the second Wednesday of May 2023, and for each year thereafter on or before the second Wednesday of May. This bill would also require a private employer that has 100 or more employees hired through labor contractors, as defined, to also submit a separate pay data report to the department for those employees in accordance with the above timeframe, as specified. This bill would require the pay data reports to include the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex within each job category. This bill would delete a provision requiring employers with multiple establishments to submit a consolidated report. This bill would delete the provision authorizing an employer to submit an EEO-1 in lieu of a pay data report. This bill would permit a court to impose a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per employee upon any employer who fails to file the required report and not to exceed two hundred dollars ($200) per employee upon any employer for a subsequent failure to file the required report. The bill would require those penalties to be deposited in the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund. Existing law creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, under the direction of the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce labor laws. Existing law requires an employer, upon reasonable request, to provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant applying for employment. Existing law defines pay scale for these purposes to mean salary or hourly wage range. This bill would also require an employer, upon request, to provide to an employee the pay scale for the position in which the employee is currently employed. The bill would require an employer with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale for a position in any job posting. The bill would require an employer to maintain records of a job title and wage rate history for each employee for a specified timeframe, to be open to inspection by the Labor Commissioner. The bill would create a rebuttable presumption in favor of an employee's claim if an employer fails to keep records in violation of these provisions. The bill would require an employer with 15 or more employees that engages a third party to announce, post, publish, or otherwise make known a job posting to provide the pay scale to the third party and would require the third party to include the pay scale in the job posting. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to investigate complaints alleging violations of these requirements and would authorize the commissioner to order an employer to pay a civil penalty upon finding an employer has violated these provisions. The bill would also authorize a person aggrieved by a violation of these provisions to bring a civil action for injunctive and any other appropriate relief. This bill would require deposit of the civil penalties collected pursuant to these provisions into the Labor Enforcement and Compliance Fund, and would authorize these funds to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for administration and enforcement of these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Department of General Services within the Government Operations Agency under the control of an executive officer known as the Director of General Services to provide centralized services, including, but not limited to, planning, acquisition, construction, and maintenance of state buildings and property, purchasing, printing, architectural services, administrative hearings, and accounting services. Existing law requires a state agency that significantly regulates or impacts small business to designate a person to serve as a small business liaison for the state agency, and specifies the duties of a small business liaison, including receiving and responding to complaints about the agency from small businesses and providing technical advice and assisting small businesses in resolving problems and questions regarding compliance with the agency's regulations and relevant statutes. This bill would require the Department of General Services to designate a person to serve as a nonprofit liaison. The bill would require the department to advertise the existence of the nonprofit liaison on the department's internet website. The bill would establish the responsibilities of a nonprofit liaison, including responding to complaints by nonprofit corporations about the department and assisting nonprofit corporations with complying with the department's regulations and relevant statutes. The bill would prohibit the nonprofit liaison from advocating for or against the adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation, or intervening in a pending investigation or enforcement action.
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, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract issued, amended, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2000, or an individual or group policy of disability insurance or self-insured employee welfare benefit plan to provide coverage for mammography for screening or diagnostic purposes upon referral by specified professionals. Under existing law, mammography performed pursuant to those requirements or that meets the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force is provided to an enrollee or an insured without cost sharing. This bill would require a health care service plan contract, a policy of disability insurance that provides hospital, medical, or surgical coverage, or a self-insured employee welfare benefit plan issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2024, to provide coverage without imposing cost sharing for, among other things, screening mammography and medically necessary diagnostic breast imaging, including diagnostic breast imaging following an abnormal mammography result and for an enrollee or insured indicated to have a risk factor associated with breast cancer, except as specified. 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 a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, that generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment. Existing law requires an employer to provide medical, surgical, chiropractic, acupuncture, and hospital treatment reasonably required to cure or relieve the injured worker from the effects of the injury. Existing law includes in the meaning of medical treatment services and supplies by physical therapists, chiropractic practitioners, and acupuncturists, that are licensed and within the scope of their practice. Existing law authorizes an insurer, employer, or entity that provides physician network services to establish or modify a medical provider network for the provision of medical treatment to injured employees, and requires that a network include an adequate number and type of physicians or other providers, as defined. This bill would include a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) as treatment the employer is reasonably required to provide, would expand the meaning of medical treatment to include the services of an LCSW, and would authorize an employer to provide an employee with access to an LCSW, as defined, acting within the scope of their practice. The bill would authorize medical provider networks to add LCSWs to the physician providers listing, authorize an LCSW to treat or evaluate an injured worker only upon referral from a physician, as defined, and prohibit an LCSW from determining disability, as specified. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations in support of allowing licensed clinical social workers to treat work-related mental and behavioral health issues. Existing law requires that when a self-insured employer, group of self-insured employers, or the insurer of an employer contracts with a health care organization for health care services to be provided to injured employees, those employees subject to the contract are to receive medical services in the manner prescribed in the contract. Existing law requires that each contract provide all medical, surgical, chiropractic, acupuncture, and hospital treatment that is reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury. This bill would include an LCSW as treatment that the contract is required to provide.
Existing law prohibits a business establishment from discriminating against a person because of the person's gender with respect to the price charged for services of similar or like kind. Existing law also requires specified business establishments to disclose in writing the pricing for each standard service, as defined, to display, in a specified manner, a sign stating that it is illegal to base pricing on gender and that a complete price list is available upon request, and to display, in a specified manner, a price list, and to provide the customer with a copy of the complete price list upon request. This bill would prohibit a person, firm, partnership, company, corporation, or business from charging a different price for any 2 goods that are substantially similar, as defined, if those goods are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whom the goods are marketed and intended. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek an injunction to enjoin and restrain the continuance of those violations, and would authorize the court, in addition to granting the injunction, to impose a civil penalty, as specified.