The California State Legislature was very busy in 2014, enacting numerous labor and employment laws that will affect the day-to-day operations, practices, and policies of California employers in 2015. We have been getting a lot of questions lately about these new laws and provide a summary of the relevant provisions below: 

Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

As we previously reported (New CA Paid Sick Leave & Paid Sick Leave Update) California's new Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 will require most California employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees, including all full-time, part-time, temporary, migrant and seasonal employees.  While the major requirements of the law take effect on July 1, 2015, certain obligations took effect on January 1, 2015.

Since its enactment, we have been receiving a lot of questions about the new paid sick leave law. Keep in mind that just because your current policy provides as much, or more, paid sick leave than is required under the new law, it does not necessarily mean that you are in compliance with the new law. There are various rules regarding accrual rates, carry over, permissible uses and record keeping.  Employers need to review their current policies prior to the July 1 implementation date to ensure compliance with the new law. Below is a link to the Labor Commissioner's most recent FAQ's on the topic (click here)

Extension of Discrimination and Harassment Protections to Unpaid Interns and Volunteers

Under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA") existing law prohibits discrimination and harassment of employees and trainees based on specified characteristics, including race, national origin, gender, age, disability, and religion just to name a few.  This new law expands these protections to unpaid interns and volunteers. 

Specifically, the law now prohibits discrimination in the "selection, termination, training, or other treatment" of unpaid interns and individuals in a limited duration program providing unpaid work experience.  It also prohibits harassment of unpaid interns and volunteers.  Furthermore, the law extends the obligation to accommodate bona fide religious beliefs to unpaid interns and individuals in any other program that provides unpaid work experience.

Prohibition of Discrimination Against Employees Receiving Public Assistance

This new law prohibits employers from discharging, or in any matter discriminating or retaliating against an employee who enrolls in a public assistance program and from refusing to hire a person because he or she is enrolled in a public assistance program.  It also prevents an employer from disclosing to any person or entity the fact that an employee receives or is applying for public benefits, unless otherwise permitted by state or federal law.

Expansion of Immigration-Related Protections

Under existing law, the Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV") is authorized to issue a driver's license to a person who is unable to submit satisfactory proof of authorization to be in the United States.  However, this new law specifies that discrimination on the basis of national origin includes, but is not limited to, discrimination on the basis of possessing such a driver's license. 

Additionally, the new law imposes on California employers new confidentiality requirements which specify that any driver's license information obtained by an employer must be treated as "private and confidential" and cannot be disclosed to any unauthorized person.  Moreover, the new law makes clear that an employer may only use driver's license information to establish identity and authorization to drive.

While it is largely unclear how federal and state law will mix in this area, the new law clarifies that any action taken by an employer to comply with any requirement under the Immigration and Nationality Act is not a violation of law.  Therefore, the new law does not affect an employer's obligation to obtain information required under federal law to determine identity and legal authorization to work in the United States. This means that an employer can and must still fill out the federal Form I-9 documentation and require individuals to present sufficient proof of legal identity and authorization to work in the United States.

Extension of Liability for Employers Using Contract Labor/Staffing Companies

Existing law prohibits employers from entering into labor or services contracts with a construction, farm labor, garment, janitorial, security guard, or warehouse contractor, if the employer knows or should know that the agreement does not include sufficient funds for the contractor to comply with laws or regulations governing the labor or services to be provided.  This new law expands this law by extending and assigning legal responsibility and liability to the businesses that contract with labor contractors.  Particularly, the new law states that businesses that contract with labor contractors (including temporary and other staffing agencies) are directly liable to workers if those labor contractors fail to pay wages or provide worker's compensation coverage.

Notably, the law does not impose liability on an employer using an independent contractor, it only applies to employers who are provided with workers to perform labor within the employer's "usual course of business."  The new law also does not prohibit employers from entering into indemnification agreements with the labor contractor. 

Anti-Bullying - Abusive Conduct Training

Existing law requires employers with 50 or more employees (located anywhere in the United States) to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training prevention to all supervisors or managers located in California, within six months of hire or promotion to supervisory status, and every two years thereafter. This new law now imposes an additional requirement on these employers to include training on prevention of abusive conduct, commonly referred to as "bullying." 

Under the new law, "abusive conduct" is defined to mean "conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer's legitimate business interests."  Abusive conduct may include the following repeated acts: infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks; insults; epithets; verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; and gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person's work performance. A single act shall not constitute abusive conduct, unless especially severe and egregious. Currently, the new law does not provide an employee the right to sue for the above-described conduct, and  only requires training on the prevention of abusive conduct. However, this new training requirement is likely a step towards making such conduct unlawful in the future.

Expansion of Emergency Rescue Personnel Leave

Currently, California law prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel.  However, the definition of "emergency rescue personnel" was previously limited to those providing emergency services in government agencies, sheriff's departments, police departments or private fire departments. The new law now expands the definition of "emergency rescue personnel" to include those providing emergency services as part of a disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by the state. Employees who qualify as emergency rescue personnel are permitted to take up to fourteen (14) days of unpaid leave each year for training in connection with their service.

It also requires employees who are health care providers to notify their employer at the time they become designated as emergency rescue personnel, as well as when they are notified that they will be deployed as a result of that designation.

Clarification Regarding Heat Breaks

As we previously reported (click here), last year the Legislature passed the Heat Illness Prevention Statute, which requires employers to provide heat recovery periods to certain employees who work outside or are otherwise exposed to high temperatures, and includes penalties for employers who fail to comply.  The  new law now clarifies that the recovery periods are paid breaks and count as hours worked.

Waiting Time Penalties for Labor Commissioner Citations

As every California employer is well aware, there are a myriad of different penalties imposed on employers for  unpaid wages in California. When an employer willfully fails to timely pay all wages owed to an employee who is discharged or who quits, the employer may incur a "waiting time" penalty in which it will have to pay the employee's wages until the amount is paid in full, for up to  a maximum of 30 days.  Under the  new law, the Labor Commissioner may now recover these penalties on behalf of a former employee, if a citation is issued following an investigation by the Labor Commissioner.  Previously, the Labor Commissioner could not include "waiting time" penalties on a citation issued to the employer. The new law now allows the Labor Commissioner to do so, and to collect the waiting time penalties on behalf of the employee.  The intent of this new law is to enable the employee to obtain his/her final wages with as little delay as possible. 

You may call your Firm contact if you wish to discuss any of these new laws or you need any other assistance.