Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, governs local emergency medical service systems and plans and establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority, which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all state activities concerning emergency medical services. Existing law provides that emergency medical personnel have specified due process rights when they are subject to suspension or termination for disciplinary cause or reason, as defined. Existing law prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work during a meal or rest or recovery period mandated by an applicable statute, or an applicable regulation, standard, or order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Existing orders of the commission applicable to ambulance drivers and attendants and to medical technicians require that unless the employee is relieved of all duty during a 30 -minute meal period, the meal period shall be considered an on-duty meal period and counted as time worked. Those orders authorize an on-duty meal period only when the nature of the work prevents an employee from being relieved of all duty and when the parties, by written agreement, agree to an on-the-job paid meal period. This bill would require an employer that provides emergency medical services as part of an emergency medical services system or plan to authorize and permit its employees engaged in prehospital emergency services to take prescribed rest periods, including specifying grounds for interruption of a rest period and compensation for an interrupted rest period. The bill also would require the employer to provide these employees with prescribed meal periods, including specifying grounds for interruption of a meal period and compensation for an interrupted meal period. The bill would authorize an employer to require during rest and meal periods that employees monitor pagers, radios, station alert boxes, intercoms, cellular telephones, or other communication methods to provide for the public health and welfare. Existing federal law, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, preempts a state from enacting or enforcing any law, regulation, or other provision that relates to an air carrier's price, route, or service. The bill would specify that an employer who is an air carrier under federal law and who conducts business as an air ambulance service, without penalty, may avoid disruption of services by requiring an employee to remain on call during meal and rest periods, or as otherwise dictated by federal law. The bill would require such an employer to provide another meal period or authorize and permit another rest period, or both a meal and rest period, as applicable, when an employee is affirmatively required to interrupt his or her meal or rest period to respond to the needs of patients. The bill would also specify that such an employer may avoid disruption of services by requiring an employee to continue to provide emergency care during a patient transport during meal and rest periods, or as otherwise dictated by federal law. The bill would require such an employer, if it cannot provide a meal or rest period to an employee with direct responsibility for emergency air ambulance services within the timeframes established under applicable law, due to patient needs or the necessity to provide service, to provide a meal or rest period as soon as reasonably possible. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the Department of Industrial Relations, and authorizes the board to adopt, amend, or repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires the standards board to adopt standards developed by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health that require specified licensed hospitals to adopt a workplace violence prevention plan to protect health care workers and other facility personnel from aggressive and violent behavior, but prohibits this provision from being interpreted to preclude the standards board from adopting standards that require other employers to adopt plans to protect employees from workplace violence, including workplace violence prevention plans that include elements or requirements additional to, or broader in scope than, those described in the provision. This bill would require an EMS provider, as defined, to send the information contained in the violent incident log it is required to maintain under a specified regulation to the Emergency Medical Services Authority. The bill would require the authority, on or before January 1, 2019, and annually thereafter, to post a report on its Internet Web site containing this information. The bill would prohibit these provisions from altering or amending the existing reporting and recordkeeping requirements of EMS providers imposed by the specified regulation. The bill would exempt certain public employers from these provisions.
Sponsored bills
Existing law prohibits a person from operating a commercial motor vehicle unless the person has passed a written and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with specified federal standards and any other requirements imposed by the Vehicle Code. Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to implement these provisions, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish performance goals to decrease the wait time to obtain an appointment to take the driving skills test to operate a commercial motor vehicle. The bill would require the department to convene a stakeholder group to make recommendations to the department on meeting these performance goals. The bill would require the department to submit a report to the relevant budget and policy committees of the Legislature detailing the recommendations of the stakeholder group, the recommendations that the department has adopted, the recommendations that were not adopted with an explanation of why they were not adopted, and how the department intends to implement these recommendations. The bill would additionally require the department to submit a subsequent report to these committees describing the department's performance in implementing the recommendations it has adopted and achieving the performance goals.
This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 680 in the City of San Ramon in the County of Contra Costa as the Detective Sergeant Thomas A. Smith, Jr. Memorial Highway. The measure would also request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, erect those signs.
This measure would designate a specified portion of Interstate 5 in the County of Los Angeles as the Ritchie Valens Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the cost, to erect those signs.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college and provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States by the popular vote of all eligible citizens of the United States.
This measure would mark May 6, 2017, as the 135th anniversary of the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to recognize the harm caused by racially discriminatory immigration measures, and to honor the contributions of all immigrants and refugees who have enriched our communities. The measure would also declare the opposition of the Legislature to recent executive orders signed by President Trump relating to immigration, call upon the President to revoke those orders, condemn the expansion of deportations being undertaken under the current presidential administration, and reaffirm that the state is open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees who are integral to life in our state.