Jennifer A. Reisch

The legislative director of Equal Rights Advocates, Reisch has spent much of her last year pushing legislation to strengthen California’s employment anti-discrimination laws, while implementing a signature legislative achievement from 2015.

In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law co-sponsored by Equal Rights Advocates and SEIU United Service Workers West and submitted by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzales, a San Diego Democrat, to regulate a janitorial industry beset by reports of sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

Assembly Bill 1978 requires all janitorial contracting companies in the state to register with the Labor Commissioner by 2018. Also, the Labor Commissioner must develop sexual violence and harassment prevention training standards specific to the janitorial industry by July 1.

“I believe it significantly strengthens requirements against egregious sexual violence and assault,” Gonsalez said.

Equal Rights Advocates has co-sponsored with Gonzales other bills that passed the Assembly and await Senate approval, legislation that, like the janitorial measure, is novel to California’s employee rights friendly climate.

Assembly Bill 569 prevents employers from taking adverse actions against workers based on their reproductive health decisions, and Assembly Bill 570 bars the apportionment of workers’ compensation payouts to be based on an employee’s pregnancy.

Reisch’s most prominent legislative achievement the last two years was working with Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Santa Barbara Democrat, to draft and enact Senate Bill 358. The nationally debated legislation amended California’s Equal Pay Act to let workers show pay disparities at employer’s different job sites and shift the burden of proof so an employer demonstrates a compelling reason to pay workers different wages.

A smattering of lawsuits have been filed that cite the Fair Pay Act, Reisch noted, and she is currently part of a State Department of Fair Employment and Housing task force that seeks to more clearly define terms in the bill.

— Matthew Blake