Perspective
Jan. 19, 2017
AB 1978: Janitorial contractor registry
Strengthens protections against workplace sexual harassment and assault and requiring all janitorial contractors to register with the state. By Jennifer Reisch
Jennifer Reisch
Of Counsel, Bryan Schwartz Law
labor & employment
UC Berkeley Boalt Hall
Jennifer is the former legal director of Equal Rights Advocates.
Prompted by a growing movement led by immigrant women and investigative reports about the prevalence and severity of sexual violence in the janitorial industry, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1978 into law last September, strengthening protections against workplace sexual harassment and assault and requiring all janitorial contractors to register with the state.
The bill was authored by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) and co-sponsored by SEIU United Service Workers West, which represents more than 40,000 California janitors, security guards, and other property service workers, and Equal Rights Advocates, a San Francisco-based national nonprofit legal organization with a long history of representing women subjected to sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. Equal Rights Advocates represented Maria Bojorquez, whose story was featured in the PBS/Frontline documentary "Rape on the Night Shift," which brought national attention to the issue.
To curb the problems of sexual harassment, workplace violence, and wage theft in the janitorial industry, AB 1978 requires all janitorial contractors in the state to register with the labor commissioner, beginning in 2018. It also mandates in-person training on sexual harassment and violence for all supervisors and employees of covered employers, beginning in 2019, and provides avenues to enforce these provisions.
In California, property services is one of five industries that operate almost exclusively through contracting and subcontracting, which often makes it difficult to enforce and ensure compliance with labor standards and civil rights laws. Prior to AB 1978, all five of these industries, except for the janitorial industry, were governed by a registry or licensing scheme.
AB 1978 bolsters its registry and training requirements by calling for the labor commissioner to develop sexual violence and harassment prevention training standards specific to the janitorial industry in consultation with an "advisory committee" that it must form by July 1, 2017. The committee will include representatives from relevant state agencies, janitorial worker organizations, employers, sexual assault victims' advocacy groups, and other subject matter experts.
Unfair, dangerous and abusive working conditions in the property services industry in California - especially in the subcontracted sector - are serious problems. As a recent UC Berkeley Labor Center study found, working in isolation, as many janitors do, increases a person's vulnerability to sexual assault. Not surprisingly, more than eight in 10 workers who reported being raped in the workplace said that they were working alone. Janitorial workers' isolation from co-workers and the public reduces the likelihood that anyone will intervene or serve as a witness, and allows harassers to exert even greater control. Such conditions exacerbate the fear and threat of retaliation that many workers already feel due to their undocumented immigration status and precarious economic situation. For these workers, the heightened protections and accountability that AB 1978 provides could not come soon enough.
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
jeremy@reprintpros.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 949-702-5390
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com