This fall, the California legislature responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with several new laws that impact employers from workers' compensation, paid sick leave/Leaves of absence and workplace safety. Other legal trends like worker classification, discrimination and harassment, and privacy continue to evolve in the state. Governor, Gavin Newsom signed several labor law updates the employers need to know for 2021.
As the regulatory and legal environment continues to evolve, HCM solutions like OnePoint provide flexible tools and real-time data to adapt to regulatory changes. The unified data architecture streamlines reporting to proactively monitor and manage risk and in turn minimizes the chance of violations and penalties.
2021 California Labor Law Updates are grouped into categories (click the link to jump to section)
There are new laws related to COVID-19 that will impact employers in the context of workers’ compensation, paid sick leave and workplace safety.
This law establishes a rebuttable workers’ compensation presumption for workers who contracted COVID-19 between March 19, 2020, and July 5, 2020, and, second, creating a rebuttable presumption for first responders and health care personnel who contract COVID-19 after July 6, 2020.
SB 1159 also creates an “outbreak” presumption for employers with five or more employees, covering workers who test positive for COVID-19 during an “outbreak” at the employee’s place of employment. The statute specifically defines “outbreak” as any of the following:
Additionally, when an employer with five or more employees “knows or reasonably should know” that an employee tests positive for COVID-19, SB 1159 requires the employer to inform its workers’ compensation carrier and provide specified information within three business days. SB 1159 was an urgency measure that went into effect September 17, 2020.
This law took effect immediately on September 9, 2020. It expands supplemental paid sick leave for COVID-19-related reasons for certain employers not already covered by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) — specifically, employers with 500 or more employees nationwide, as well as health care providers and first responders that are excluded from FFCRA.
Employees who work for covered employers can take COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave if the worker is:
Employees working from home are not eligible for supplemental paid sick leave.
The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) has issued guidance on the new leave requirements that answers employers’ common questions about coverage, eligibility, calculating leave amounts and pay, and how previously provided paid sick leave, under local ordinances, for example, may be credited toward the new law’s requirements.
Notice Requirements:
Employers must post the appropriate notice below in the workplace. If employees do not regularly go to the workplace, it should be distributed to them electronically.
Notice for Food Service Employers
Notice for Employers with 500+ Employees or Healthcare Providers or Emergency Responders
OnePoint’s Accruals solution simplifies your ability to accurately track sick leave accruals, rollovers and caps to meet local paid sick leave compliance laws.
Minimize compliance risk by configuring accrual calculations for multiple groups with varying accrual rules. Give employees in different leave groups real-time visibility to see the amount of sick leave to meet local laws without creating extra work for HR.
AB 685 establishes stringent COVID-19 recording and reporting requirements when employers receive “notice of a potential exposure to COVID-19” at the workplace. Among other things, AB 685 requires employers to provide a number of notices to different groups of employees within one business day after receiving notice of a potential COVID-19 exposure.
AB 685 also requires employers to notify their local public health agency within 48 hours of a COVID-19 “outbreak,” as defined by the California Department of Public Health(CDPH). At the time of publication, the CDPH defined an outbreak in most instances as three lab-confirmed cases within two weeks, though the department could revise this definition. Because the definition of “outbreak” under this law differs from the definition under SB 1159, employers should be mindful of the circumstances and which definition should apply. (See our for details about the CDPH-issued guidance on this new notices law.)
OnePoint Contact Tracing and Covid Reporting
SB 1383 expands California Family Rights Act coverage in two ways:
This expansion will have a major impact on small businesses, which must quickly get up to speed on CFRA’s requirements to be ready by January 1. This bill also impacts larger employers already covered by the CFRA and FMLA who will in some cases have to administer the two leaves separately. For example an employee can take 12 weeks of leave to care for a sibling under CFRA and then take another separate 12 weeks to care for themselves or their spouse under FMLA.
Employers, big and small, should become familiar with the law’s details and be prepared to revise or implement compliant policies and practices by 2021.
OnePoint Full Suite clients can add this functionality to consolidate accrued time, historical time data and entitlement rules into a centralized leave management system to ensure only eligible leaves are approved and they are administered correctly to keep you compliant.
Resources:
OnePoint Blog: California Enhances Family Leave and Sick Leave Protections
Belmont | $15.90 per hour |
Cupertino | $15.65 per hour |
Daly City | $15.00 per hour |
El Cerrito | $15.61 per hour |
Half Moon Bay | $15.00 per hour |
Los Altos | $15.65 per hour |
Menlo Park | $15.25 per hour |
Oakland | $14.36 per hour |
Palo Alto | $15.65 per hour |
Petaluma | $15.20 per hour |
Redwood City | $15.62 per hour |
Richmond | $15.21 per hour |
San Carlos | $15.24 per hour |
San Diego | $14.00 per hour |
San Jose | $15.45 per hour |
San Mateo | $15.62 per hour |
Santa Clara | $15.65 per hour |
Santa Rosa | $15.20 per hour |
South San Francisco | $15.24 per hour |
Sunnyvale | $16.30 per hour |
Emeryville | $16.84 per hour | |
Fremont | $13.50 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
Los Angeles (City & Co.) | $14.25 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
Malibu | $14.25 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
Milpitas | $15.40 per hour | |
Pasadena | $14.25 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
San Francisco | $16.07 per hour | |
San Leandro | $15.00 per hour | |
Santa Monica | $14.25 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
Santa Rosa | $14.00 per hour (25 EEs or Less) | $15 per hour (26+ EEs) |
Novato (3 tiered Minimum Wage)
$15.24 per hour for very large businesses with 100 or more employees (based on CPI-W adjustment);
$15 per hour for large businesses with 26-99 employees; and
$14 per hour for small businesses with 1-25 employees.
Source: Economic Policy Institute Wage Tracker (California)
https://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/#/min_wage/California
Currently, the Labor Commissioner can, upon request, represent a claimant in proceedings to appeal a wage claim award if the claimant couldn’t afford counsel. SB 1384 extends the commissioner’s authority to also represent a claimant who’s financially unable to represent themselves in a hearing where a court order has compelled arbitration to determine the claim.
This law specifically makes a successor employer liable for its predecessor’s unpaid wage judgments and establishes specific criteria to establish successorship. The bill also allows local jurisdictions to enforce state labor standards requirements regarding payment of wages.
A couple of narrow industry-specific rest break bills were signed this year. AB 1512 allows security guards to remain on the premises during rest periods and to remain on call during the rest period. If work interrupts the rest period, the security guard must be permitted to restart the rest period as soon as practicable. This exception applies to security guards registered under the Private Security Services Act working for employers registered under the same law. AB 2479 extends a limited on-call rest break exception for safety sensitive positions at petroleum facilities to 2026.
OnePoint HCM simplifies meal and rest break compliance
AB 1947 extends the time an individual can file a complaint of discrimination or retaliation with the DLSE, also known as the Labor Commissioner. Under current law, workers has six months to file a compliant with the Labor Commissioner alleging they were discriminated or retaliated against in violation of any law. Beginning on January 1, 2021, however, AB 1947 extends that time to one year (twelve months).
Cal/OSHA’s emergency regulations requiring employers to protect workers from hazards related to COVID-19 are now in effect, following their approval November 30 by the Office of Administrative Law. As emergency standards, these regulations became effective immediately.
The emergency standards apply to most workers in California not covered by Cal/OSHA’s Aerosol Transmissible Diseases standard. The regulations require that employers implement a site-specific written COVID-19 prevention program to address COVID-19 health hazards, correct unsafe or unhealthy conditions, and provide face coverings. When there are multiple COVID-19 infections or outbreaks at the worksite, employers must provide COVID-19 testing and notify public health departments. The regulations also require accurate recordkeeping and reporting of COVID-19 cases.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives California consumers rights over how and whether the personal data they provide to businesses is collected, retained and sold. Because its definitions are broad, the CCPA applies to employee data collected by employers for employment purposes
This is problematic because, under the rights established by the CCPA, employees could potentially request to have their personal information deleted.
To address this issue, the Legislature passed AB 25 in 2019, largely exempting employee data from the CCPA’s requirements for one year; this year’s AB 1281 extends the exemption for an additional year to the end of 2021.
Note: Employers must still comply with the additional CCPA requirements that include providing notice either before or at the time of collecting personal information from an applicant or employee. That notice must describe every category of information that will be collected and the purposes for which it will be used. CCPA regulations describing how employers can give a compliant notice are now in effect.
On September 30, 2020, Governor Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 973, which creates pay reporting requirements for employers. The law requires employers with 100 or more employees to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) (also required under federal law), to also submit a pay data report to the DFEH that contains information about their employees’ race, ethnicity and gender in various job categories.
Read more about meeting California Pay Data Reporting Requirements with OnePoint HCM
This summary digest of new California employment laws is intended for market awareness only. It is not exhaustive and it is not to be used for legal advice or counsel. Please access any number of public resources available to monitor changes in employment law that may affect your organization or consult with a labor law attorney.
Resources:
California Chamber of Commerce
California State Council of SHRM
Economic Policy Institute Wage Tracker (California)