Employers have to review their employment practices for 2015 and change some of there practices to be in compliance with the new laws taking effect in 2015.
AB 2751, This bill prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating, retaliating, or taking any adverse action against an employee because of the employee updates or attempts to update personal information based on a lawful change of name, social security number, or federal employment authorization document. The bill would prohibit an employer’s compliance with these provisions from serving as the basis for a claim of discrimination, including any disparate treatment claim. Lastly, AB 2751 clarifies that a $10,000 penalty (per employee) for each violation will be awarded to the employee or employees who faced the illegal retaliation.
AB 263 and SB 666 were enacted last year to protect immigrant workers against unlawful retaliation. These two bills have since operated in conjunction to prohibit employers from engaging in various “immigration-related practices” against employees who had exercised certain rights protected under state labor and employment laws. These “unfair immigration-related practices” included threatening to file or filing a false police report or threatening to contact or contacting immigration authorities in retaliation for some protected activity engaged in by the employee.
AB 1443 Harassment: unpaid interns. This bill would provide that discrimination against any person in the selection, termination, training, or other terms or treatment of that person in an unpaid internship, or another limited duration program to provide unpaid work experience for that person, or the harassment of an unpaid intern or volunteer, on account of the factors described above is an unlawful employment practice.
AB 2053 Existing law requires every employer to act to ensure a workplace free of sexual harassment by implementing certain minimum requirements, including posting sexual harassment information posters at the workplace and obtaining and making available an information sheet on sexual harassment. Existing law also requires employers, as defined, with 50 or more employees to provide at least 2 hours of training and education regarding
sexual harassment to all supervisory employees, as specified. Existing law requires each employer to provide that training and education to each supervisory employee once every 2 years. This law adds the requirement that the above-described training and education include as a component of the training and education, prevention of abusive conduct, as defined.
AB 1522 Paid Sick Leave. Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 provides that an employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days for prescribed purposes, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. An employee would be entitled to use accrued sick days beginning on the 90th day of employment. The law would authorize an employer to limit an employee’s use of paid sick days to 24 hours or 3 days in each year of employment. The law would prohibit an employer from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who requests paid sick days. Employees would be entitled to use paid sick time for preventive care for themselves or a family member, as well as for the diagnosis, care, or treatment of their or their family member’s existing health condition. For purposes of this bill, “family member” means a (1) child (as defined), (2) parent (as defined), (3) spouse, (4) registered domestic partner, (5) grandparent, (6) grandchild, or (7) sibling. The employer shall also provide paid sick days for an employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, as discussed in Labor Code sections 230 and 230.1. The law would require employers to satisfy specified posting and notice and recordkeeping requirements. The law would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce these requirements, including the investigation, mitigation, and relief of violations of these requirements. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner to impose specified administrative fines for violations and would authorize the commissioner or the Attorney General to recover specified civil penalties against an offender who violated these provisions on behalf of the aggrieved, as well as attorney’s fees, costs, and interest.
Minimum Wage, Ordinances passed by city that are more favorable to employees must be followed by employers in those cites. California’s minimum wage is $9.00 an hour however San Francisco has a minimum wage of $1074, San Jose is at $10.15. Employers in these cities have to ensure that their Exempt employee are in compliance with the requirements for the salary test.
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