AB 1867

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) , establishes the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) 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. Under FEHA, the DFEH has specified powers, including the power to receive, investigate, conciliate, mediate, and prosecute certain complaints. The Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act, commonly known as the California Family Rights Act, which is a part of FEHA, makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, as defined, to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period for family care and medical leave, as specified. This bill would, upon specified circumstances, require the DFEH to create a small employer family leave mediation pilot program, as prescribed. The pilot program would authorize a small employer or the employee to request all parties to participate in mediation through the DFEH's dispute resolution division within a specified timeframe, after notice. The bill would prohibit an employee from pursuing civil action until the mediation is complete if an employer or employee requests mediation, as prescribed. The bill would toll the statute of limitations for the employee, including for additional related claims, from receipt of a request to participate in the program until the mediation is complete. These provisions of the bill would be repealed on January 1, 2024. (2) Existing law, the California Retail Food Code, establishes uniform health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities and delegates the enforcement of those standards to the State Department of Public Health and local health agencies. Existing law requires food employees to keep their hands and exposed portions of their arms clean, washing as specified, and regulates the provision of handwashing facilities. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor, punishable as prescribed. This bill would require a food employee working in any food facility to be permitted to wash their hands every 30 minutes and additionally as needed. By changing the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, entitles an employee who works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment to paid sick days. Under existing law, an employee accrues paid sick days at a rate of not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked, subject to certain use, accrual, and yearly carryover limitations. Existing law authorizes an employer to use a different accrual method from that described above, provided that the accrual is on a regular basis so that the employee has no less than 24 hours of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 120th calendar day of employment or each calendar year or in each 12-month period. Under existing law, an employer is not required to provide additional paid sick leave if the employer has a paid leave policy or paid time off policy and makes available an amount of leave to employees under the same conditions and the policy satisfies the accrual, carryover, and use requirements described above. Existing law requires an employer, in each workplace of the employer, to display a poster in a conspicuous place containing specified information on paid sick days. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to create a poster containing this information and make it available to employers. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to enforce the act and provides for procedures, including investigation and hearing, and for remedies and penalties. This bill would establish COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave for food sector workers, as prescribed. The bill would require a hiring entity to provide a number of hours of COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave, determined as prescribed, to each food sector worker who performs work for or through the hiring entity if that food sector worker is unable to work due to any of specified reasons relating to COVID-19. The bill would authorize a food sector worker to determine how many hours of this leave to use, up to the total number of hours to which the worker is entitled. Under the bill, the rate of compensation would be the highest of the food sector worker's regular rate of pay in the last pay period, the state minimum wage, or an applicable local minimum wage, up to daily and aggregate total maximum payments. The bill would exempt a hiring entity from being required to provide the COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave if the hiring entity provides the relevant food sector worker, as of the effective date of the bill's provisions, with a specified other supplemental benefit. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave provisions, as provided. For purposes of enforcement, the bill would deem all food sector workers to be employees and any hiring entity to be an employer. The bill would define terms for these purposes. This bill would similarly establish COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave for covered workers, including certain persons employed by private businesses of 500 or more employees or persons employed as certain types of health care providers or emergency responders by public or private entities. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to make publicly available a model notice relating to COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave for covered workers for purposes of the posting requirements under existing law. The bill would permit notice by electronic means in lieu of posting, for purposes of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave only, if a hiring entity's covered workers do not frequent a workplace. The bill's requirements to provide COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave and COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave for covered workers would expire on December 31, 2020, or upon the expiration of any federal extension of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act established by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, whichever is later. This bill would appropriate $100,000 from the Labor and Workforce Development Fund to the Labor Commissioner for staffing resources to implement and enforce the provisions related to the COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave for covered workers and COVID-19 food sector supplemental paid sick leave. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce existing law and the bill's provisions through prescribed procedures. (4) 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. (5) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.