Update on Pending Legislation
There are several employment-related legislation pending in Sacramento that you should keep your eye on. They are as follows:
Mandatory Unpaid Bereavement Leave (A.B. 325)
This proposed bill has reared its head before under Schwarzenegger in 2007 & 2010 but was not signed. Now, under Brown, proponents are hoping he will sign it. If Gov. Brown does sign it, employees would have the right to take up to three days off because of the death of a spouse, child, grandparent, grandchild, or domestic partner. The strange part is they have up to 13 months of the death to take the time off! Not to mention how many times employees have already killed off their grandparents. Not sure why they are putting such an extended period of time on this bill. I will keep an eye out on this one.
Use of Credit Reports (A.B. 22)
Many of you have heard me preach about this one before. This bill would prohibit employers from obtaining a consumer credit report for employment purposes unless: (1) the information is substantially job-related, and (2) the position of the applicant for whom the information is sought is managerial, in law enforcement, in the state Department of Justice, or a position for which the information in the report must be disclosed by law or obtained by the employer.
By the way, substantially job related simply means that the position sought involves access to money, assets, or confidential information which does give the employer some flexibility.
Mandatory Paid Sick Leave (A.B.400)
You may recall that I mentioned this one earlier this year. It has run into some obstacles but it is still out there. This bill would require employers to provide California employees seven or more days in a calendar year with paid sick leave. It is accrued at a rate of at least one hour for every thirty hours worked. Employees could use accrued sick leave, beginning on the 90th calendar day of employment, for diagnosis, care, treatment of health conditions of the employee or a family member, or for leave related to domestic violence or sexual assault.
These are a few. Next week, I will be doing a two-part piece regarding new federal guidelines for transgender workers. Stay tuned!
