Compensation
In a very exciting move toward closing pay gaps that would bring more pay equity to women, Assemblymember Tina McKinnor authored AB-2335: Public Employment: Compensation And Classification. The bill would advance possibilities for labor equity – particularly for women. This bill would require public employers to track statistics around worker identities and report pay gaps with plans to renegotiate compensation “to close any gaps found” both retroactively and moving forward. The bill would also require that public employees get paid at rates comparable to what they would be making in the private sector for the same work.
In another bill that could have benefits for underpaid workers, and in this instance a field overrepresented by women, Assemblymember Corey Jackson introduced AB-2185: Employment Agencies: Domestic Workers. That bill regulates the way that employment agencies place and compensate in-home domestic workers. The new law would “require that payments for domestic services in such a case be made only directly to the domestic worker.” Jackson also started the process for new equity legislation with AB-437: State Government: Equity. However, the focus of that bill was a bit vague and has been moved to “inactive” status. It is possible that Jackson will re-introduce legislation with more specific solutions in a future session.
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https://lasentinel.net/california-black-legislative-updates-education-bills-to-watch.html
Retirement
Clarifying changes constitute AB-1997: Teachers’ Retirement Law by McKinnor. This bill removes ambiguity around terms and definitions so that “annualized pay rate” simply means “salary” and “creditable compensation” simply means “cash payments from an employer.” The bill also removes certain limits around how much money one can earn for retirement.
With AB-2183: Public Employees’ Retirement Benefits: Final Compensation, Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer also proposed changes for public employee retirement language. The change would allow employees who have served in multiple public service capacities to benefit from their respective retirement benefits without being penalized for professional dexterity.
That bill compliments Jones-Sawyer’s proposed constitutional amendment, ACA-22: Legislature: Retirement, which states, “Retirement credit earned by that person through service in another state or local government agency may qualify for credit in the state retirement plan.”
Workforce and Recruitment
Facilitating the recruitment of public employees in K-12 education, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty introduced AB-2088: K–14 Classified Employees: Part-Time Or Full-Time Vacancies: Public Postings. The bill would require that all school districts “publicly post part-time or full-time job vacancies for K–14 classified employees.”
Also in the area of education labor, Assemblymember Mia Bonta authored AB-1273: Classified Employees: Classified Employee Staffing Ratio Workgroup. This law, already signed and chaptered, will promote labor fairness for workers in the categories “food service, maintenance and operations, office and technical services, paraeducators, special services, including law enforcement, and transportation services.”
The law requires the examination of ratios of workers at each site based on enrollment and other relevant factors so that the worker assignments effectively match the need at each school. Keeping jobs in California was the priority for Assemblymember Akilah Weber with AB-1381: Employment Protections: Call Centers. For any state agency the bill would mandate that “at least 90% of the call center work is conducted in California.”
While the bill was set for a second hearing, that hearing was canceled. Hopefully we will see another iteration of this effort in the future.
Worker Rights
Toward the privacy of employees and applicants for employment, SB-700, SB-1345 and AB-3066 allow for greater protection concerning personal histories. Already signed into law is SB-700: Employment Discrimination: Cannabis Use authored by State Senator Steven Bradford. SB-700 made it “unlawful for an employer to request information from an applicant for employment relating to the applicant’s prior use of cannabis.”
In a related effort, State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas authored SB-1345: Employment Discrimination: Criminal History Information. The bill would make it unlawful to require a prospective employee to waive their right to a criminal background check as a condition for employment and also mandate that employers request permission in writing from an applicant before obtaining criminal history.
Assemblymember Christopher Holden proposed AB-3066: Workers’ Compensation: Privacy, which would limit who can access records for individuals who have been involved in workers’ compensation claims.
Announcing the intent to propose a future solution, Smallwood-Cuevas authored SB-1457: Chain Employer: Displacement Notice. It seems that a future bill would “require chain employers to provide advance notice to employees in the event of job displacement due to business closures or relocations.”
With AB-1 we are reminded that legislators are also workers who deserve fair labor practices. Authored by McKinnor and already signed into law, AB-1: Collective Bargaining: Legislature “allows legislative employees in California to engage in collective bargaining.”
SB-864: Workforce Development: Workplace Rights Curriculum is a bill by Smallwood-Cuevas. It requires the education of worker rights to new members of the workforce as it expands. To compliment that requirement, Smallwood-Cuevas also introduced SB-1030: California Workplace Outreach Project, which would establish a vehicle “to create education and outreach materials” in partnership with qualified organizations.
