LABOR

• AB 56 (Salas) This bill comprehensively regulates the Employment Development Department (EDD) by, among other things, codifying various recommendations from State Auditor related to EDD. act to amend Section 11019.7 of the Government Code, and to amend Section 2614 of, and to add Sections 320.4 and 1326.8 to, the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to benefits.

• AB 73 (Robert Rivas) Expands the definition of essential workers to include agricultural workers for the purpose of accessing the personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpile for emergencies established by the State Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Services. Directs the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) to review and update the content of wildfire smoke training in existing regulations. Requires training provided by employers to be in a language and manner readily understandable by employees. act to amend Section 131021 of the Health and Safety Code, and to add Part 12 (commencing with Section 9110) to Division 5 of the Labor Code, relating to employment safety, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

• AB 138 (Committee on Budget) This bill makes necessary changes to implement the labor and employee compensation provisions adopted as a part of the Budget Act of 2021. act to add Sections 19815.9, 20825.13, and 22944.6 to, and to repeal Section 22843.1 of, the Government Code, to add Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 2693) to Part 11 of Division 2 of the Labor Code, and to amend Sections 316, 1095, 1339, 2655, 2701, 14005, 14013, and 14017 of, to amend, repeal, and add Section 823 of, and to add Sections 340 and 14014 to, the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to employment, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget.

• AB 397 (Mayes) Requires the Employment Development Department (EDD) to provide an individual additional notification prior to disqualifying them from unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. act to amend Sections 1260 and 1261 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to unemployment insurance.

• AB 565 (Lackey) Expands membership of the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship (IACA) by adding the Director of the State Department of Social Services as an ex officio member. Requires the IACA to create a subcommittee to study and report on issues related to the participation of homeless youth and foster youth in apprenticeships and preapprenticeships, as specified. act to amend Sections 3071.5 and 3073.5 of, and to add Section 3071.7 to, the Labor Code, relating to apprenticeship.

• AB 628 (Eduardo Garcia) Makes changes to the Breaking Barriers to Employment Initiative (BBEI), administered by the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB), in order to expand the purpose of the BBEI to include efforts for the retention of employment as well as efforts that enhance racial and economic justice. This bill would also revise and expand the BBEI’s grant application requirements, evaluation criteria, list of eligible populations which the BBEI can serve, and eligible activities which the BBEI grants can fund. act to amend Sections 14031, 14032, 14033, 14034, and 14035 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to workforce development.

• AB 643 (Ramos) This bill requires local educational agencies planning to hold a college or career fair to notify each apprenticeship program in the same county. act to add Section 3074.2 to the Labor Code, relating to apprenticeship.

• AB 654 (Reyes) This bill clarifies and strengthens provisions enacted in 2020 relating to workplace COVID-19 exposure notifications, which (1) adds renewable natural gas to the list of utilities that the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) are not allowed to interrupt; (2) requires employers, when giving notice to the local public health agency of a COVID-19 outbreak, to give that notice within 48 hours or one business day, whichever is later; and (3) enacts a sunset date of January 1, 2023, on these provisions. act to amend Section 6325 of, and to amend and repeal Section 6409.6 of, the Labor Code, relating to occupational safety, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

• AB 701 (Lorena Gonzalez) Requires specified employers of 100 or more nonexempt employees at a single warehouse distribution center or 1000 or more nonexempt employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the state to provide each employee with a written description of each quota they are subject to within a defined time period and any potential adverse action that could result from a failure to meet the quota. act to amend Section 138.7 of, and to add Part 8.6 (commencing with Section 2100) to Division 2 of, the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• AB 1023 (Flora) Allows the Labor Commissioner (LC) to impose a penalty on a contractor or subcontractor on a public works project if they fail to furnish payroll records to the LC, as specified. act to amend Section 1771.4 of the Labor Code, relating to contractors.

• AB 1273 (Rodriguez) This bill (1) expands membership of the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship to include the State Public Health Officer and the Director of Consumer Affairs; and (2) expands the use of the “earn and learn” training model by preventing these two government entities from prohibiting its use for personnel training or accreditation of programs and requiring them to use licensing or certification standards that authorize it. act to amend Section 3071.5 of the Labor Code, to add Section 314 to the Business and Professions Code, and to add Section 131088 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to job training.

• AB 1506 (Kalra) Extends the sunset to the newspaper carriers’ exemption from the ABC test for employment status to January 1, 2025. Require newspaper publishers and distributors to annually report information regarding carrier employment, wage claims and lawsuits, and average wage rate, to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). act to amend Section 2783 of the Labor Code, relating to private employment.

• AB 1561 (Committee on Labor and Employment) Extends the sunset on the exemption from the ABC test for employment status for licensed manicurists and subcontractors in the construction trucking industry. Also clarifies the exemption for the relationship between data aggregators and research subjects and for specified insurance industry occupations. act to amend Sections 2778, 2781, 2782, and 2783 of the Labor Code, relating to worker classification.

• SB 62 (Durazo) This bill prohibits the practice of piece-rate compensation for garment manufacturing, except in the case of worksites covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement; and further requires a garment manufacturer who contracts with another person for the performance of garment manufacturing to jointly and individually share civil legal responsibility and civil liability for workers in that other person’s employ. act to amend Sections 1174.1, 2670, 2671, 2673, 2673.1, and 2675.5 of, and to add Section 2673.2 to, the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 93 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) This trailer bill makes various statutory changes to implement rehiring rights for hospitality workers who were laid off for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. act to add and repeal Section 2810.8 of the Labor Code, relating to employment, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget.

• SB 95 (Skinner) This bill makes various statutory changes to implement COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave. act to add Sections 248.2 and 248.3 to the Labor Code, relating to employment, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget.

• SB 162 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) This bill makes necessary changes to implement the Community Economic Resilience Fund Program as provided in the Budget Act of 2021. act to add Chapter 5.1 (commencing with Section 14531) to Division 7 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to economic development, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget.

• SB 321 (Durazo) This bill requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) to convene an advisory committee to provide voluntary guidance and make recommendations on policies the state may adopt to protect the health and safety of privately funded household domestic service employees. This bill also requires Cal/OSHA to release and publicly post a report of the advisory committee on its internet website and submit a copy to the Legislature by January 1, 2023. act to add Section 6305.1 to the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 338 (Gonzalez) This bill expands the set of violations that can cause port drayage contractors to be placed on a Division of Labor Standards Enforcement list that extends joint liability for future violations to customers of that contractor. act to amend Section 2810.4 of the Labor Code, relating to private employment.

• SB 390 (Laird) This bill requires the Employment Development Department (EDD) to develop and implement a recession plan to prepare for an increase in unemployment insurance compensation benefits due to an economic recession. act to add Section 339 to the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to unemployment insurance.

• SB 572 (Hertzberg) This bill gives the Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement division the same lien power for citations that they currently have with respect to employee-filed claims. act to add Section 90.8 to the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 606 (Gonzalez) This bill establishes a rebuttable presumption that an employer’s written policy that violates specified health and safety regulations exists at all of an employer’s worksites and adds a definition of “egregious violation” that carries specified additional penalties. act to amend Sections 6317, 6323, 6324, 6429, and 6602 of, and to add Sections 6317.8 and 6317.9 to, the Labor Code, relating to occupational safety.

• SB 628 (Allen) This bill enacts the California Creative Workforce Act of 2021, the purpose of which would be to establish creative arts workforce development as a state priority and to promote employment and “earn and learn” job training opportunities for creative workers. Among other things, this bill requires the California Arts Council (CAC), in consultation with the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB), to design the program guidelines and criteria and vests the Council with the responsibility of overseeing and administering the grant program. act to amend Section 8753.5 of the Government Code, and to add Article 4 (commencing with Section 14240) to Chapter 4 of Division 7 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to workforce developments.

• SB 639 (Durazo) This bill requires the development of a plan to phase out the use of the subminimum wage certificate program, which authorizes employers to pay less than minimum wage for employees with physical or mental disabilities, as defined, by January 1, 2025. This bill requires the plan be posted online and reported to the Legislature by January 1, 2024. This bill further requires that no new licenses for the subminimum wage certificate program be issued beginning January 1, 2022 and requires existing license holders to meet benchmarks provided for in the phase-out plan in order to be relicensed. act to amend Section 1191 of, and to amend and repeal Section 1191.5 of, the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 646 (Hertzberg) This bill allows janitorial employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that meets certain conditions to be exempt from filing a lawsuit against their employer under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004. act to add and repeal Section 2699.8 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 727 (Leyva) This bill expands existing direct contractor liability to include liquidated damages and penalties in circumstances where the direct contractor fails to meet payroll monitoring and corrective action requirements, as specified. act to amend Section 218.7 of, and to add Section 218.8 to, the Labor Code, relating to employment.

• SB 753 (Roth) This bill requires the California Workforce Development Board to evaluate program outcomes for all grant programs it administers, including program participant outcomes, regardless of funding source. This bill also requires the director of the Employment Development Department to permit the use of specified wage data with the California Workforce Development Board in order to assist the board in its obligation to evaluate program outcomes for the grant programs it administers. act to amend Sections 1095 and 14013 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to employment.

• SB 779 (Becker) This bill amends the definition of “earn and learn” programs, and specifically, the definition of “transitional and subsidized jobs” under the California Workforce and Innovation Opportunity Act. This bill adds to the California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act a definition of “employment social enterprise” and clarifies that for purposes of the Act the definition of “worker cooperative” has the same meaning as it does in in Section 12253.5 of the Corporations Code. act to amend Section 14005 of the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to employment.