This bill prohibits an employer from discharging or acting in any discriminatory manner against an employee for specified activities relating to attending court, seeking help, or other assistance on account of being a victim of sexual assault. This bill authorizes an employee who is a victim of sexual assault to use paid or unpaid leave in order to attend to such activities. An employee may file a complaint within one year of the occurrence of an employer’s violation of the provisions of the bill with the Labor Commissioner.

This bill specifies that within 21 days of receiving a written or oral request for a current or former employee, an employer must provide copies (at cost) or permit the employee to inspect his or her payroll records. This bill provides for a $750 penalty for an employer that fails to comply. It allows an employee to bring civil action for injunctive relief to obtain access to payroll records.

This bill reinforces existing law providing that local jurisdictions are allowed to enforce local labor standards in their jurisdictions provided those standards do no explicitly contradict or are not pre-empted by state law. The bill bars state agencies that provide funding to projects in local jurisdictions from requiring those entities not to enforce local labor standards as a condition of receiving state funds. The bill’s intent is to reinforce the existing right of local jurisdictions to enforce labor standards that are more stringent than required by state law.

This bill prohibits discriminatory and coercive acts by employers to prevent employees from disclosing information about their working conditions.

This bill supplements the federal plant closure law, by requiring notification of layoffs, terminations, and relocations, which affect 499 or fewer employees. New regulations would apply to businesses of 50 or more workers. Violators are liable for back wages and civil penalties.

This bill requires the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to conduct an independent study that includes information identifying federal and state resources available to determine the most effective means of enforcing wage and hour laws.

This bill specifies that an absence control policy that counts sick leave taken to care for an ill child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner is a violation of the law.

This bill maintains that all protections, rights and remedies available under state law are available to all individuals who have applied for employment, or who are or who have been employed in this state, regardless of immigration status; with the exception of reinstatement remedies prohibited by federal law.

Assembly Bill (AB) 486 makes technical, clarifying and substantive changes to AB 749 (Calderon), Chapter 6, Statutes of 2002, the comprehensive workers' compensation bill enacted in February and effective in 2003.

This bill is a comprehensive workers’ compensation bill that increases workers’ compensation benefits and implements cost-saving reforms in the administration of the workers’ compensation system.

This bill establishes a compensable injury presumption under the Workers' Compensation Law and the disability retirement provisions of state and local retirement systems for exposure to a biochemical substance.

This bill authorizes the Insurance Commissioner (IC) to disapprove workers’ compensation rate filing if (1) premiums generated from the rates are not adequate to cover an insurer’s losses and expenses, or (2) rates as modified would be inadequate to cover an insurer’s losses and expenses or would impair or threaten the solvency of an insurer. This bill adds workers’ compensation insurance to the definition of property and casualty insurer, subjecting workers’ compensation insurers to file an annual risk-based capital report. Its purpose is to give the Department of Insurance more authority to regulate workers’ compensation rates and stabilize the market.

The bill creates a rebuttable presumption of compensability under workers’ compensation law for specified peace officers and members of the California Conservation Corps who contract Lyme Disease. This bill’s intent is to protect certain specified members who work in high-risk areas for contracting Lyme Disease.

This bill requires that, when a temporary agency enters into a contract with a licensed contractor to provide the licensed contractor with the services of an individual, the temporary agency must pay the workers' compensation premiums for that individual based on the experience modification of the licensed contractor. This bill also clarifies that the temporary agency shall be solely responsible for workers' compensation for that individual.

This bill authorizes the Insurance Commissioner (IC) to receive a report prepared by a licensed rating organization of the potential underreporting of workers’ compensation exposure in the taxicab industry by April 1, 2003. It directs the IC to submit a report to the Governor and Legislature by May 1, 2003 that describes the reliability of the methodology utilized and the findings reported. The intent of this measure is to collect additional information regarding potential underreporting of workers’ compensation exposure in the taxicab industry.

This bill would exempt personal services arrangements between a physician or an immediate family member of the physician and a recipient of referrals by the physician or an immediate family member of the physician from the prohibitions in the Business and Professions Code and the Labor Code against a physician making a referral to a person with whom the physician has a financial interest if the personal services arrangement meets specified requirements. This bill would conform California laws restricting self-interested physician referrals to federal healthcare law regulating physician referrals under Medicare and other federally funded healthcare programs.

This bill establishes provisions, guidelines and protections for trial court employees, including employee rights of hire, transfer, portability of seniority, membership in recognized employee organizations, agency shop arrangements, layoff procedure and representation elections as well as dispute resolution rights. This bill also allows for the superior court system to be included in the state’s exemption from having to secure workers’ compensation payments.

This bill makes changes, both technical and substantive, to SB 1156 (Burton), which establishes a procedure for the resolution of agricultural labor contract disputes by mandatory mediation and conciliation. This bill (1) limits the number of cases any party can take to mandatory mediation to 75; (2) provides the parties have had to have attempted to bargain a contract for at least one year for cases predating the effective date of the bill; and (3) sunsets on January 1, 2008.

This bill establishes a procedure for the resolution of agricultural labor contract disputes by mandatory mediation and conciliation. If enacted, this measure would authorize an agricultural employer or a labor organization representing agricultural workers to file with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), any time following 90 days after certification of the labor organization, a declaration that the parties have failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement. This bill applies only to an agricultural employer who has employed or engaged 25 or more agricultural employees during any calendar week in the year preceding the filing of a declaration.

This bill authorizes three named community college districts, and five additional projects chosen by the Community College Chancellor, to enter into design-build contracts for the design and construction of projects that exceed $10 million in cost, until January 1, 2008. The three community college districts that would be authorized to utilize design-build contracts are: a) The Los Angeles Community College District; b) The San Jose-Evergreen Community College District.; c) The San Mateo Community College District. Furthermore, this bill establishes a procedure to pre-qualify design-build entities, including the use of a questionnaire developed by the Department of Industrial Relations.

This bill deletes sunset date of January 1, 2003 from currently operative Labor Code §§ 1776 and 1813 and repeals alternative sections that would have become effective on that date. These changes will retain current operative provisions of law that make a subcontractor (instead of the prime contractor) of a public works project responsible for maintaining payroll records for his or her own employees and providing certified copies of these records as required by law. The bill also makes the subcontractor liable for penalties for failure to provide copies payroll records timely or to pay overtime wages due employees.

This bill requires an awarding body to either initiate and enforce, or contract with a third party to initiate and enforce a labor compliance program if the awarding body elects to use funds made available through any of the specified Public Education Facilities Bond Acts. This bill becomes effective only if the Public Education Facilities Bond Acts are passed in the general elections.

This bill requires that the body awarding a contract for a public works project financed in any part with funds made available by the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002 (Act) adopt and enforce a labor compliance program. This bill only becomes effective if the Act is passed in the general election.

This bill provides for exemptions for self-help housing, housing assistance and housing rehabilitation projects from prevailing wage requirements for the construction or rehabilitation of privately-owned residential projects. According to the author, this bill is intended to clarify the application of SB 975 (Alarcon), Chapter 938, Statutes of 2001, and is the result of extensive discussions between the Davis Administration, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, and affordable housing advocates.

This bill allows, until January 1, 2006, the cities of Brentwood, Hesperia, Vacaville, and Woodland to use the design-build method of contracting, under the same guidelines as the counties that are currently permitted to use this method; and for projects costing $5 million or more, these cities would be permitted to award contracts based either on the lowest responsible bid or the best value, as defined. It outlines that the cities must utilizes a prequalification questionnaire developed by the Department of Industrial Relations.

This bill delays the date on which volunteer firefighters become subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Cal-OSHA) from January 1, 2002 to January 4, 2004; except for claims that arose from January 1, 2002 to the effective date of this bill. The purpose is to allow smaller firefighting districts, who rely upon volunteer firefighters to a large extent, sufficient time to comply with standards applicable to voluntary firefighters.

This bill revises reporting and investigation procedures of workplace accidents resulting in serious injury or death and the prosecution of criminal violation of such accidents, add civil and criminal penalties for failure to report accidents, requires the state to make efforts to ensure that limited-English proficient persons can communicate and establishes a special account in the General Fund to receive private and public contributions for the general enforcement of the law.

This bill establishes a comprehensive statutory scheme to regulate elevator safety.

(SB 1886) is intended to reduce the potential for accidents associated with conveyance construction, repair and use. It is also intended to improve the effectiveness of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to enforcement of elevator and conveyance safety by increasing the available pool of qualified personnel whose activities affect elevator safety and by making elevator safety standards in California more consistent with national standards.