SB 973

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law 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. The DFEH has specified powers, including the power to receive, investigate, conciliate, mediate, and prosecute certain complaints. Existing law establishes within the Department of Industrial Relations the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which is vested with the general duty of enforcing various labor laws, including provisions prohibiting wage rates that discriminate on the basis of gender or race. This bill would authorize the DFEH to receive, investigate, conciliate, mediate, and prosecute complaints alleging practices unlawful under those discriminatory wage rate provisions. The bill would require the DFEH, in coordination with the division, to adopt procedures to ensure that the departments coordinate activities to enforce those provisions. Existing federal law requires specified companies to file with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) that contains specified data regarding demographics of the employer's workforce. This bill would require, on or before March 31, 2021, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter, a private employer that has 100 or more employees, and that is required to file an annual Employer Information Report under federal law, to submit a pay data report to the DFEH that contains specified wage information. The bill would require that the information be made available in a prescribed format. The bill would require the DFEH to make the reports available to the division upon request. The bill would authorize the DFEH, if it does not receive the required report from an employer, to seek an order requiring the employer to comply, as specified. The bill would require the DFEH to maintain the pay data reports for a minimum of 10 years and would make it unlawful for any officer or employee of the DFEH or the division to make public in any manner whatever any individually identifiable information obtained from the report prior to the institution of certain investigation or enforcement proceedings, as specified. The bill would require the Employment Development Department to provide DFEH, upon its request, as specified, with the names and addresses of all businesses with 100 or more employees. The bill would make legislative findings in support of these provisions. The California Public Records Act requires a public agency to make public records available for inspection, unless an exemption from disclosure applies. This bill would provide that any individually identifiable information submitted to the department pursuant to this bill be considered confidential information and not subject to disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act, except as specified. 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.