California Legislature Returns from Summer Recess

The California State Legislature returned to the Capitol on August 12 after its summer recess and will be in session until September 13. There are several bills impacting the food processing industry that are still moving through the legislative process.

Key among these bills are SB 54 (Allen) and AB 1080 (Gonzalez), which would create and unprecedented product and packaging regulation in California. These bills impose sweeping new mandates on manufacturers and establish unprecedented recycling/composting rates for certain materials and/or packaging types without first analyzing California’s recycling and composting infrastructure, end use markets, conflicting state and federal laws, potential economic incentives and repercussions to the state economy, and how rates will be monitored, tracked and assessed. CLFP and other industry groups have been engaging with the authors' offices to try and find middle ground and have requested that the bills be held until next year to give stakeholders the time necessary to thoroughly vet the issues. The authors have expressed their intentions to move the bills this year, which only gives one month of negotiations on the largest and most unprecedented packaging regulation in California.

CLFP is also concerned about SB 1 (Atkins) which creates significant regulatory uncertainty and litigation risks to regulated entities by giving certain state agencies unfettered authority to adopt rules and regulations without any of the Administrative Procedure Act safeguards when the agency, in its discretion, determines that the federal rules and regulations in effect on are “less protective” than existing federal law. It also undermines current state efforts to utilize science-based decision-making to manage and provide reliable water supplies for California and protect, restore and enhance the ecosystems of the Bay-Delta and its tributaries. It also further increases the potential for costly litigation by creating new private rights of action under California law.

CLFP is engaging in a coalition effort on AB 5 (Gonzalez) regarding independent contractor status. The bill codifies the Dynamex decision, which completely changed the standard for determining independent contractor versus employee. This decision places in doubt the sustainability of a significant portion of independent contractor relationships in California and has the potential to cause substantial economic harm to millions of California citizens. Industry has argued against a one-size-fits-all way of thinking, and the professions and individuals identified in AB 5 should be exempted from its application. However, additional, similarly situated industries/professions/and independent contractors should also be included in the exemptions. Of importance to the food processing industry are independent truckers.

There are also several labor bills that CLFP is actively opposing that would create costly new mandates on employers and/or expose them to increased litigation.

For more information, contact Trudi Hughes.