Newsletter

Getting Ready for 2024 and Beyond

Continuing the trend of recent years, the California State Legislature had an extremely busy year. Governor Newsom had until October 14 to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature. Below are key bills scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).

AB 452 (Addis) Childhood sexual assault: statute of limitations.
Summary: This bill eliminates the statute of limitations to bring a civil action against an employer—including public agencies—where there has been a claim against an employee of that organization for alleged child sexual abuse. The bill’s provisions “apply to any claim in which the childhood sexual assault occurred on and after January 1, 2024.”

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AB 594 (Maienschein). Labor Code: alternative enforcement. 

Summary: This bill, until January 1, 2029, would authorize a public prosecutor to prosecute an action, either civil or criminal, for a violation of specific provisions of the Labor Code or to enforce those provisions independently. It would require money recovered by public prosecutors under the California Labor Code to be applied first to payments due to affected workers. Except as specified, it would limit the action of a public prosecutor to redressing violations occurring within the public prosecutor’s geographic jurisdiction. This bill would authorize a public prosecutor, in addition to any other remedies available, to seek injunctive relief to prevent continued violations.

SB 497 (Smallwood-Cuevas). Protected employee conduct.

Summary: Under existing law, if an employee is discharged, threatened with discharge, demoted, suspended, retaliated against, subjected to adverse action, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of their employment because, among other things, the employee engaged in protected conduct, the employee shall be entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits caused by those acts of the employer. This bill amends Labor Code sections 98.6, 1102.5, and 1197.5 to create a rebuttable presumption of retaliation if an employer takes certain adverse actions against an employee within 90 days of the employee engaging in protected activity. It creates a presumption that may allow some claims to proceed that would not have in the absence of the presumption.

SB 553 (Cortese). Occupational safety: workplace violence: restraining orders and workplace violence prevention plan.

Summary: Among other provisions, this bill adds Section 6401.9 to the California Labor Code, which requires employers to adopt a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan that must include specific elements that must be implemented into the plan by July 1, 2024. Additionally, employers must record information in a violent incident log about every incident, post-incident, response, and workplace violation injury investigation performed per the plan. This requirement also must include specific elements, as outlined in the bill.

SB 616 (Gonzalez). Sick days: paid sick days accrual and use.

Summary: This bill amends California’s paid sick leave law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, by raising the employer’s authorized limitation on the use of carryover sick leave to 40 hours or five days in each year of employment. The bill would redefine “full amount of leave” to mean five days or 40 hours. Previously, employers were authorized to limit an employee’s use of accrued paid sick days to 24 hours or three days in each year of employment, calendar year, or 12-month period.

SB 623 (Laird). Workers’ compensation: post-traumatic stress disorder.

Summary: This bill removes the proposed January 1, 2025, sunset date for the PTSD presumption afforded to many safety officers. The sunset date has been extended to January 1, 2029, and the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation is required to submit reports to the Legislature in the interim. These reports shall “analyze the effectiveness of the presumption and a review of claims filed by specific types of employees, not included in the presumption, such as public safety dispatchers.”

SB 848 (Rubio). Employment: leave for productive loss.

Summary: The California Fair Employment and Housing Act makes it unlawful for an employer to refuse to grant a request by any employee to take up to 5 days of bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. This bill additionally makes it unlawful for an employer to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 5 days of reproductive loss leave following a reproductive loss event. SB 848 defines a “reproductive loss” as a miscarriage, failed surrogacy, stillbirth, unsuccessful assisted reproduction, or failed adoption. The bill would require that leave be taken within three months of the event (unless an exception is covered under the bill). This bill provides that if an employee experiences more than one reproductive loss event within a 12-month period, the employer is not obligated to grant a total amount of reproductive loss leave time of more than 20 days within a 12-month period. The reproductive loss leave may be unpaid unless an existing policy addresses this. However, the bill authorizes an employee to use other leave balances that are available to the employee (such as paid sick leave). This bill makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an individual because the individual exercised the right to reproductive loss leave or the individual’s giving of information or testimony as to reproductive loss leave. This bill would require the employer to maintain employee confidentiality regarding the reproductive loss leave.

As the State Legislature reconvenes in January, the Authority will continue to monitor bills and inform members of legislation that may affect public agencies.

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