Seyfarth Synopsis: California Legislators sent Governor Jerry Brown 1,217 bills to consider in his final bill-signing period as Governor—more than any California governor has seen since 2004. The final tally: 1016 signed, 201 vetoed. Below is our full, final roundup of new laws that employers must comply with, bills that fell to the Governor’s veto pen, and bills that
Continue Reading CA Legislative Update: Governor Brown’s Job is Done

Seyfarth Synopsis: Governor Jerry Brown has already signed into law legislation covering meal period exceptions for truck drivers delivering commercial feed, adding communications to be considered as “privileged” for purposes of defamation suits, removing a reference to the seven-day waiting period for disability benefits under the paid family leave program, and clarifying salary history information.

As temperatures begin to drop,
Continue Reading Legislative Update: Employment Bills Already Signed, Two Weeks Remain

Seyfarth Synopsis: Several bills of concern to California employers failed to receive the house of origin blessing and passage by the June 1 deadline, including this year’s attempts at PAGA reform, criminal history inquiries, and medical marijuana accommodations, while a boatload of others, most notably sexual harassment-related bills, sail on. The measures being passed to their opposite house for consideration
Continue Reading 2018 California Legislative Update: What Survived the House of Origin Deadline?

Seyfarth Synopsis: California’s new law, Assembly Bill 450, signed by Governor Brown on October 5, and effective January 1, 2018, imposes several new immigration-related duties on California employers and the potential for civil fines. AB 450 will require employers to understand or seek guidance on where the new law ends and federal immigration law begins. The complexities of U.S. immigration
Continue Reading AB 450: California’s Law of Unintended Immigration Consequences

Seyfarth Synopsis:  California Governor Jerry Brown recently vetoed the Gender Pay Gap Transparency Act (AB 1209), which would have required California employers to produce pay data, without consideration of legitimate reasons for differences in pay, to the Secretary of State, who then would publish the data on the internet.

Read about this development in a recent post to
Continue Reading California’s “Naming and Shaming” Gender Pay Bill is Toast, But Pay Equity Headaches Remain: Tomorrow’s Free Webinar on Pay Equity Laws

Seyfarth Synopsis: New statutory obligations for California employers in 2018 will include prohibitions on inquiries into applicants’ salary and conviction histories, expanding CFRA to employees of smaller employers, expansion of mandatory harassment training to include content on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, and new immigration-related restrictions and obligations.

California Governor Jerry Brown spent his last day to sign
Continue Reading 2017 Labor & Employment Legislative Update: It’s Finally Over! (For Now…)

Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has just created yet another protected class of individuals entitled to sue employers under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. The new class of potential plaintiffs are applicants denied employment because of their conviction history, where the employer is unable to justify relying on that conviction history to deny employment.

We’ve reported on two January
Continue Reading California Passes State-Wide Ban-the-Box Law

Seyfarth Synopsis: Governor Jerry Brown has till October 15 to approve bills the Legislature sent to his desk by its Friday, September 15, deadline, including bills that would require employers to ”show us the money” for certain employees and to make “mum be the word” for an applicant’s past conviction history.

The 2017 California Legislative Session kicked off on January
Continue Reading 2017 Labor & Employment Legislative Update: The End is Near!

Seyfarth Synopsis: On September 11, AB 1209, the Gender Pay Gap Transparency Act, which would require larger employers in California to publish differences in pay between male and female employees and Board members, left the Legislature on route to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk for his approval or veto. A statewide salary history ban may soon be headed to his desk,
Continue Reading With EEO-1 Pay Report Gone, California Moves to Fill the Gap

Seyfarth Synopsis: Pay equity and Ban The Box bills lead the list of bills approved to continue their quest (moving to the other house of the California Legislature) to become California law.

Friday, June 2, marked the last day for bills in the California Legislature to pass out of their house of origin—the Senate or Assembly—and continue the legislative process
Continue Reading 2017 Labor & Employment Legislative Update: House of Origin Deadline