NEW CALIFORNIA EMPLOYMENT LAWS FOR 2016
October 15th, 2015/By Admin/In Blog
This employment law update is brought to you by Firm Partner Sherry B. Shavit.
The year 2015 was not the worst, but not the best, year for employers in California. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a number of bills that private employers should be aware of, the majority of which go into effect on January 1, 2016:
- SB 358 – Equal Pay Amendments: California’s Equal Pay statute (Labor Code §1197.5) has been amended to become “the strongest equal pay law in the nation,” according to Governor Brown. Employees of the opposite sex not only must be paid equally within a company, but also must be paid equally for “substantially similar work” across the board, which potentially could span across different industries. This bill also increases an employer’s burden to justify wage differentials. The bill further protects employees from retaliation for raising an unequal pay issue; prohibits employers from banning employees from discussing their wages with other employees; and increases the payroll records retention requirement from two to three years.
- SB 588 – Expanded Liability for Labor Code Violations: This bill creates Labor Code §558.1, which expands liability for violations of various wage and hour laws from only employers to also any “other person acting on behalf of an employer,” including owners, officers, directors, and managing agents. It also targets businesses who contract for janitorial, security guard, valet parking, landscaping and/or gardening services, and the long term care industry (skilled nursing facilities, retirement communities, hospices and the like) who now can be held jointly and severally liable for nonpayment of wages to employees of these service companies. This bill also increases the Labor Commissioner’s power to enforce judgments for nonpayment of wages.
- AB 1513 – Overhaul of Piece-Rate Compensation: This bill creates Labor Code §226.2, clarifying, and imposing new burdens, on employers who pay employees on a piece-rate basis. This bill requires employers to pay employees at least minimum wage for rest and recovery periods, and any other non-productive time, separately from piece-rate compensation. It further requires these employees’ itemized wage statements to separately state the total hours paid for rest and recovery periods, the rate of compensation, and gross wages paid for those periods, and separately state the same information for any other paid non-productive time. There is a safe harbor provision up through December 31, 2015 for failing to pay for rest or recovery periods, or other non-productive time, but employers must comply with several technical conditions (including compensating the employees).
- SB 327 – Meal Period Waivers in the Healthcare Industry: This bill reaffirms and clarifies the law permitting meal period waivers for the healthcare industry. This bill was passed as emergency legislation, and thus has already gone into effect.
- AB 1506 – Curing Itemized Wage Statement Defects: This bill provides a narrow safe harbor for employers to cure certain defects in wage statements (the inclusive dates of the pay period and the legal name and address of the employer), before civil penalties can be assessed against the employer. This bill was passed as emergency legislation, and thus has already gone into effect.
- AB 622 – Misuse of e-Verify: This bill prohibits employers from misusing the Social Security Administration’s e-Verify system, and requires employers to provide employees any notices received from the SSA or the DHS affecting them. There is a $10,000 civil penalty for each violation.
- SB 579 – Expanded Leave for School Activities and Kin Care: This bill expands the scope of covered employees who can take time off for participating in school (K-12) related activities to stepparents and foster parents, and adds activities related to finding, enrolling and/or re-enrolling a child in school or day care, and attending to child care and school emergencies (Labor Code §230.8). It further aligns the “kin care leave” statute (Labor Code §233) with the new paid sick leave law.
- AB 1509 – Non-retaliation for Family Members Engaging in Protected Activity: This bill expands certain retaliation protections to employees whose family members engage in protected activity.
- AB 987 – Non-retaliation for Requesting Disability or Religious Belief Accommodation: This bill prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee for requesting a disability or religious accommodation, irrespective of whether the accommodation is actually granted.
- SB 501 – Updates to Wage Garnishments: This bill updates the amount of an employee’s weekly earnings exempt from wage garnishments. This bill goes into effect on July 1, 2016.
- AB 1245 – Unemployment Insurance is Going Electronic: Effective January 1, 2017, employers with 10 or more employees will be required to file unemployment reports and returns, and remit UI contributions electronically, with certain exceptions. This will expand to all employers effective January 1, 2018.
- AB 970 – Increasing Labor Commissioner’s Powers: This bill expands the Labor Commissioner’s powers to enforce local wage ordinances, and to investigate and issue awards for failure to reimburse business expense claims.
- Also, don’t forget that the Paid Sick Leave Law was amended on July 13, 2015, and the DLSE has issued updated FAQs, so make sure your employee handbook and other policies are up to date!
For further questions on these new laws, or any other employment legal matter, please contact your employment counsel.
