Asm. Lorena Gonzalez

Existing law provides for the establishment of apprenticeship programs in various trades, to be approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards within the Department of Industrial Relations in any trade in the state or in a city or trade area whenever the apprentice training needs justify the establishment. Under existing law, the apprentice training needs in the building and construction trades are required to be deemed to justify a new apprentice program only if one or more specified conditions are met. Existing law also authorizes the California Apprenticeship Council to approve a new apprenticeship program if special circumstances, as established by regulation, justify the establishment of the program. The California Apprenticeship Council has not established any regulations to approve a new apprenticeship program justified by special circumstances. This bill would revise conditions for when the apprentice training needs in the building and construction trades justify a new apprentice program. This bill would also remove the authority of the California Apprenticeship Council to approve a new apprenticeship program justified by special circumstances by regulation.

Existing civil law makes a person who commits a sexual battery, as defined, upon another liable to that person for damages and authorizes a court to award equitable relief, as specified. Existing civil law provides that he or she who consents to an act is not wronged by it. This bill would prohibit consent from being a defense in any sexual battery civil action if the person committing the sexual battery is a specified adult who is in a position of authority and is able to exercise undue influence, as defined, over the minor. Under existing law, in any civil action alleging conduct which constitutes sexual harassment, sexual assault, or sexual battery, opinion evidence, reputation evidence, and evidence of specific instances of plaintiff's sexual conduct, or any of that evidence, is not admissible by the defendant in order to prove consent by the plaintiff or the absence of injury to the plaintiff. Existing law requires specified procedures to be followed in any civil action alleging conduct constituting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or sexual battery if evidence of sexual conduct of the plaintiff is offered to attack the credibility of the plaintiff, as specified. Existing law authorizes the court in its discretion to exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will either necessitate undue consumption of time or create substantial danger of undue prejudice, confusing the issues, or misleading the jury. This bill, in any sexual battery civil action involving a minor and an adult who is in a position of authority as described above, would prohibit evidence of the plaintiff minor's sexual conduct with the defendant adult from being admissible to prove consent by the plaintiff or the absence of injury to the plaintiff. The bill would authorize such evidence of the plaintiff's sexual conduct to be introduced only to attack the credibility of the plaintiff or to prove something other than consent by the plaintiff if, upon a hearing of the court out of the presence of the jury, the defendant proves that the probative value of that evidence outweighs the prejudice to the plaintiff, as specified.

Existing law prescribes comprehensive requirements relating to minimum wages, overtime compensation, and standards for working conditions for the protection of employees applicable to an employment relationship. Existing law requires employers to make specified payments and withholdings from wages paid to employment to, and to file reports of wages and make contributions for unemployment insurances and the employment administering the state's payroll taxes. Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or, except where based upon applicable security regulations to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or from a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of the person. This bill, for purposes of all of the provisions of state law that govern employment, including the Labor Code, the Unemployment Insurance Code, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, would require a cheerleader who is utilized by a California-based professional sports team during its exhibitions, events, or games to be deemed an employee. The bill would also require the professional sports team to ensure that the cheerleader is classified as an employee. Because a violation of specified employment laws, including wage and hour laws, that would apply to California-based professional sports teams utilizing cheerleaders would be a crime, 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law requires a vehicle to be driven on the right half of a roadway, subject to specified exceptions. On a highway that has been divided into 2 or more roadways by means of intermittent barriers or by means of specified kinds of dividing sections, existing law makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle on that highway, except to the right of the intermittent barrier or dividing section that separates 2 or more opposing lanes of traffic. This bill would require the Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to update a 1989 report on wrong-way driving on state highways to account for technological advancements and innovation, to include a review of methods studied or implemented by other jurisdictions and entities to prevent wrong-way drivers from entering state highways, and to provide a preliminary version of the report to specified legislative committees on or before December 1, 2015, and the final report on or before July 1, 2016. The bill would require the report to identify any additional treatments and technologies with the potential to reduce the number of instances of wrong-way driving on state highways and to include a plan to incorporate those treatments and technologies into the Department of Transportation's wrong way monitoring and mitigation program. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would provide that its provisions are repealed as of January 1, 2021. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law, as amended by the DNA Act, requires a person who has been convicted of a felony offense to provide buccal swab samples, right thumbprints, and a full palm print impression of each hand, and any blood specimens or other biological samples required for law enforcement identification analysis. Existing law makes these provisions retroactive, regardless of when the crime charged or committed became a qualifying offense. This bill would expand these provisions to require persons convicted of specified misdemeanors to provide buccal swab samples, right thumbprints, and a full palm print impression of each hand, and any blood specimens or other biological samples required for law enforcement identification analysis. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies to collect and forward these samples, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law prohibits a judge from relieving a person of the separate administrative duty to provide specimens, samples, or print impressions required by the DNA Act if the person has been found guilty of an offense for which DNA collection is required. Existing law, added by Proposition 47, allows a person to petition the court for resentencing if he or she was convicted of a felony that was reduced to a misdemeanor by Proposition 47. Existing law requires the court to resentence the petitioner, unless the court determines that the person would pose an unreasonable risk to public safety. This bill would clarify that the prohibition on judges relieving a person of the duty to provide specimens, samples, or print impressions is not affected by resentencing under Proposition 47. 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 these statutory provisions.

(1) The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 provides, among other things, that an employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days for prescribed purposes, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. This bill would require that the employee do that work for the same employer in order to qualify for accrued sick leave under these provisions. This bill would exclude a retired annuitant of a public entity, as specified, from the definition of employee under these provisions. The bill would authorize an employer to provide for employee sick leave accrual on a basis other than one hour for each 30 hours worked, provided that the accrual is on a regular basis and the employee will have 24 hours of accrued sick leave available by the 120th calendar day of employment. (2) Existing law entitles an employee to use accrued paid sick days beginning on the 90th day of employment. Existing law permits an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick days to 24 hours or 3 days in each year of employment. Existing law requires an employer to provide an employee with written notice of the amount of paid sick leave available, or paid time off leave an employer provides in lieu of sick leave, as specified. Existing law provides that an employer is not required to provide additional paid sick days if the employer has a paid leave policy or paid time off policy, the employer makes available an amount of leave for specified uses, and the policy either satisfies specified accrual, carry over, and use requirements or provides no less than 24 hours or 3 days of paid sick leave for each year of employment or calendar year or 12-month basis. This bill would authorize an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick days to 24 hours or 3 days in each year of employment, a calendar year, or a 12-month period. This bill would, for specified industries, delay the application of the notice requirement. The bill would permit an employer who provides unlimited sick leave to its employees to satisfy notice requirements by indicating "unlimited" on the employee's itemized wage statement. The bill would require an employer to calculate paid sick leave based upon an employee's regular rate of pay, total wages divided by total hours worked in a 90-day period, or the wages for other forms of paid leave, as specified. The bill would provide that an employer is not required to reinstate accrued paid time off to an employee, rehired within one year of separation from employment, that was paid out at the time of termination, resignation, or separation. The bill would provide that an employer is not required to provide additional paid sick days if the employer has a paid leave policy or paid time off policy, the employer makes available an amount of leave applicable to employees for specified uses, and the policy satisfies specified accrual, carry over, and use requirements, or that provided paid sick leave or paid time off to employees before January 1, 2015, as specified, or that are provided pursuant to specified provisions of law or of a memorandum understanding that meet the requirements of these provisions. (3) Existing law requires an employer to keep records for three years documenting the hours worked and paid sick days accrued and used by an employee and to make those records available to the Labor Commissioner upon request. This bill would provide that the employer has no obligation to inquire into or record the purposes for which an employee uses sick leave or paid time off. (4) The bill would specify that its provisions are severable and would also make technical and conforming changes. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would proclaim and acknowledge the month of June 2015 and June of every year thereafter as Elder and Vulnerable Adult Abuse Awareness Month.

This measure would urge Congress and the President of the United States to expand the Humanitarian Resettlement Program to allow disabled veteran officers of the South Vietnamese Army currently living in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to enter the United States.