Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has passed a series of employment-related bills for Governor Newsom to consider. He has until September 30 to approve or veto these bills, most of which relate to leaves of absence and COVID relief.

Monday, August 31st (or, really, the wee hours of September 1) marked the Legislature’s last day to pass bills to Governor
Continue Reading California Employment Legislative Update: Time for Governor Newsom to Get to Work

Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has passed a series of bills for Governor Newsom to consider. He now has until October 13 to approve or veto bills such as a Dynamex codification bill and a San Francisco-inspired lactation accommodation bill.

Friday, September 13th marked the Legislature’s last day to pass bills to Governor Newsom’s desk for approval in the first
Continue Reading California Employment Legislative Update: Governor Newsom Gets to Work

Seyfarth Synopsis: A new set of proposed regulations requires all janitorial employees and their supervisors to receive two hours of in-person, interactive sexual harassment training every two years.

The Property Service Workers Protection Act of 2016 requires employers with at least one janitorial worker (including front line cleaners) to provide biennial sexual violence and harassment prevention training to janitorial employees
Continue Reading Time to Clean Up Janitorial Training

Seyfarth Synopsis: The California state assembly is set to vote on Senate Bill 171, a state analogue to the federal EEO-1 report, which would require employers with 100 or more employees to submit annual pay data reports to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, broken down by gender, race, ethnicity, and job category.

Pay Data Reporting at the
Continue Reading California To Protect Pay Equity Reporting Requirements From Federal Challenge?

Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing issues a yearly report describing its complaint and litigation trends. Below is the Reader’s Digest™ version.

The DFEH recently issued its 2017 Annual Report covering its fifth year in active litigation. In 2013, the California Legislature authorized the DFEH to file lawsuits under the Fair Employment and Housing
Continue Reading DFEH Reports Age Discrimination And Retaliation Claims On the Rise

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: August 31 was the California Legislature’s last day to send bills to Governor Brown for his approval or veto by his September 30 deadline. Chief among them are bills addressing sexual harassment.

2018, the year of #MeToo, saw California Senators and Assembly Members introduce numerous bills on sexual harassment-prevention, often followed by their colleagues’ response of “me
Continue Reading California Legislative Update: Sexual Harassment, Other Bills Await Governor’s Signature

Seyfarth Synopsis: Following a season of unprecedented outcry over persistent work-related sexual harassment, known best as the “#MeToo” movement, California lawmakers this session have considered a record number of bills that address the problem. One bill, AB 1867, recently passed by the Legislature and discussed below, will (if signed by the Governor) require large employers to keep records of all
Continue Reading The Summer of #MeToo Legislation in Sacramento

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: Dominating this spring’s planting of proposed employment-related legislation are bills aimed at ending sexual harassment and promoting gender equity. Among the secondary crops are bills regarding accommodation, leave, criminal history, and wage and hour law. It threatens to be another bitter fall harvest for California’s employer community.

California legislators stormed into the second half of the 2017-18 legislative
Continue Reading 2018 California Legislative Update: It’s Spring! What Bills Have Sprung?