Legislative Action Heats Up on the Labor and Employment Front

AB 2741 (Haney) is a far-reaching bill that will impact any industry that uses temporary labor.  Among other things, AB 2741 will require a client that uses temporary employees to provide an opportunity for those workers to become directly hired employees when their assignment has been for a “long-term and continuous basis.”  The bill will also require companies that hire temporary employees to annually report the number of temporary employees they utilize compared to directly hired employees.

On the unemployment insurance front, two bill may potentially impact CLFP members. SB 1116 (Portantino) would make striking workers eligible for unemployment insurance benefits and would thereby likely prolong labor disputes. This bill is a reintroduction of SB 799 from last year that was vetoed by Governor Newsom. SB 1434 (Durazo) seeks to reform the unemployment insurance system by increasing benefits amounts and increasing the “taxable wage base” upon which employers pay taxes to a yet-to-be-determined amount (from the current first $7,000 of employee wages).  The net effect would likely be a significant increase in the amount of payroll taxes that California employers pay for unemployment insurance.

On the worker safety front, a number of bills could impact CLFP (especially those with related agricultural operations). 

AB 3106 (Schiavo) revisits the COVID-19 pandemic and would require employers to exclude COVID-19 cases for a full 10 days (CDPH recently said asymptomatic COVID-19 cases do not have to be excluded at all under certain circumstances.  The bill would also bring back “exclusion pay” (which requires employers to provide full pay and benefits when an employee is excluded from the worksite), including for any future infectious disease standard adopted by Cal/OSHA).

SB 1299 (Cortese) would establish a workers’ compensation presumption that any heat-related illness is work-related (and therefor covered by workers’ compensation) when an agricultural employer was not in compliance with California’s outdoor heat illness standard.  In addition, SB 1105 (Padilla) would authorize agricultural employees to use paid sick leave to avoid smoke, heat or flooding conditions (as determined by Cal/OSHA under a new process).

The use of artificial intelligence is a hot topic for regulation in California this year, with 29 different bills introduced on the subject.  Proposals that impact employment-related used of AI include AB 2930 (Bauer-Kahan) that, among other things” would require employers to notify employees or applicants when AI or automated decision-making tools (ADS) are used in any “consequential decision” and provide the individual to opt-out from the use of such technology and have a human make the decision. AB 3058 (Low) would declare the intent of the legislature to provide “universal basic income” to workers who are displaced due to AI.  It is unclear yet whether this would be paid for by employers or the state.

Finally, SB 988 (Wiener) would enact the “Freelance Worker Protection Act” and require business that utilize certain independent contractors to have written contracts with the contractors that include specified terms (amount of pay, time of payment, etc.).

CLFP has begun meeting with members to discuss these and many issues that membership will face this year. Committees such as the Legislative Affairs Committee have already had meetings on these proposals with other committee meetings scheduled in the next few weeks. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Katie Little: katie@clfp.com