Click here for 2000 Legislative Summary

Hertzberg

Effective Date of Legislation is January 1, 2002
(Unless Otherwise Specified)

Wages, Hours and Labor Standards

2) establishes a Farm Labor Contractor Verification Unit in the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR); and

3) requires DIR to create a Farm Labor Contractor Enforcement Unit to provide financial and technical assistance to local district attorneys' offices that operate farm labor contractor enforcement units.

1) California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) to administer and regulate employee and employer representation and collective bargaining in the horseracing industry;

2) Labor Commissioner of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) in the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) to notify the CHRB of any final finding of Labor Code violations by a CHRB licensee

3) Labor Commissioner to establish a program to periodically audit the payroll records of licensed trainers who are not party to either a multi-employer or individually negotiated collective bargaining agreement with the recognized employee labor union.

Finally, there are other provisions in the bill that are not within DLSE's purview; i.e. (a) employee housing, (b) pension plans, (c) online and account wagering, (d) pari-mutuel wagering, and (e) charity contributions.

This bill provides necessary technical language relating to the full implementation of AB 471 (Ch. 198, Stats. of '01).

This bill clarifies the authority of an arbitrator to convene an immediate hearing regarding a dispute referred to binding arbitration; and provide that the CHRB may be assisted by a local building department or other local entity designated by the jurisdiction in which a racetrack is located in conducting annual inspections of the living conditions of backstretch workers.

This bill extends the protections of the Labor Code with relation to discrimination to applicants for employment as well as employees.

This bill requires employers to provide employees a place or room to express milk and additional unpaid break time.

This bill authorizes the Labor Commissioner, following a review of the case by the U. S. Department of Labor, to re-open a discrimination complaint investigation for a case previously dismissed.

This bill establishes requirements related to wages, hour and working conditions in the sheepherder industry.

This bill enacts the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act to establish specific requirements for the retention of employees by janitorial or building maintenance services and subcontractors by a successor maintenance contractor for 60 days when the previous employer has lost the contract. This is applicable to employers with 25 or more employees and would apply to contracts for service awarded on or after January 1, 2002.

This bill authorizes a joint labor-management committee, organized pursuant to federal law, to bring a civil action against an employer who fails to pay prevailing wages to his or her employees on a public works project. This bill also permits the joint labor-management committee to obtain copies of certified payroll records containing all required information except for specific information that must be obliterated by the awarding body of by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) supplying the copies. This provision sunsets on January 1, 2003 and on that date, the social security number and employee names will be deleted (leaving only the addresses of the employees).

This bill requires the Labor Commissioner to annually inspect agricultural packing plants that renew or apply for an exemption that allows the plants to employ 16- and 17-year-old minors for up to sixty hours per week, upon approval of the Lake County Board of Education.

In addition, the bill requires the Labor Commissioner to annually inspect Lake County agricultural packing plants that renew or apply for this exemption, and to report to the Legislature on the working conditions of minors employed in the plants during the preceding year. The bill would further require exempted agricultural packing employers to provide annually, a written report to the Labor Commissioner on the number, ages, and working hours of minors that were employed

This bill provides that farm labor contractor wage surety bonds (wage bonds) and a portion of the licensing fee are payable for damages arising from Labor Code violations. It also repeals the provisions that prohibit the use of the wage bond and the Farmworker Remedial Account (FRA) for payment of penalties for nonpayment of late payment of wages. It authorizes the use of the wage bond and FRA for monetary relief awarded to an agricultural worker as a result of a violation of the Labor Code.

This bill exempts physicians from premium overtime pay requirements and clarifies provisions of AB 60 (Ch. 134, Stats. of '99) with respect to persons covered by a qualified collective bargaining agreement.

This bill would have required employers who maintain personnel files to permit employees a copy of their personnel records relating to a performance evaluation or any grievance issue. It would also have allowed the employer to charge the employee a copying fee of up to 10 cents per page.

Governor Davis stated in his veto message:

"Under current law, employees have the right to inspect their own personnel records. This bill would permit employees to obtain a copy of those records, and would authorize employers to charge either a maximum copying fee of ten cents per page or an amount specified in an applicable collective bargaining agreement.

"While it would modify existing law governing personnel records, this bill contains no provisions to protect the privacy of other individuals who may be identified in the personnel records. Without measures that ensure the privacy of those individuals and the confidentiality of a company's legitimate proprietary information, the potential for harm of this measure outweighs the possible benefits."

This bill provided that when an employee is supplied by a temporary agency or other specified entities and the employee is perform acts for which a contractor's license is required, the licensed contractor supervising the employee's work is the employer for specified purposes under the Labor Code, including provisions related to wages, hours, working conditions, workers' compensation and occupational safety and health.

Governor Davis stated in his veto message:

"In no other area of the law do we relieve the temporary employer or any employer of the responsibility to their employers. I am sympathetic to reports that some temporary employers are not fully meeting their obligations, and I am receptive to alternate remedies. "

This bill would require the Labor Commissioner to conduct the educational classes for all persons who apply for a farm labor contractor license and authorize the Labor Commissioner to charge a fee to cover the costs of operating the classes.

Governor Davis' veto message:

"This bill would require the Labor Commissioner to conduct the educational classes required for obtaining a farm labor contractor's license.

"Educational classes required of farm labor contractors were mandated by legislation I previously signed. I am confident that the Department of Industrial Relations will implement that measure appropriately. There is no reason to change the law."

This bill seeks to extend the same meal and rest period provisions that are currently applicable only to private sector employment to employees employed by any public institution that issues doctorate degrees in the health care profession, as specified.

In his veto message, Governor Davis writes:

"Emergency situations inherent in a hospital setting make it very difficult to guarantee regular break periods at a specified time.

"Also, this bill would subject the University of California to significant unwarranted statutory penalties for failing to provide mandated rest and meal periods for certain of its health care employees. These terms and conditions of work are better created and maintained through the effective use of the collective bargaining process, which is currently in place between the University and its health care employee's exclusive representatives."

Governor Davis' veto message:

I agree employees should have a right to use one half of their paid sick leave to attend to a sick child, parent or spouse. That is why I signed those provisions into law in 1999 (AB 109 Knox).

"These provisions should be given time to work."

This bill requires that a deposit by a workers' compensation insurer of securities registered with a qualified depository located in a reciprocal state be made in a bank or savings and loan association authorized to engage in the trust business, or a trust company, that is licensed to business and located in California.

Would (1) extend certain rebuttable workers' compensation presumptions to the CHP: (2) include blood-borne diseases within the definition of "injury" presumed to be a compensable industrial injury developed or manifested by specified safety members, firefighters, and active law enforcement personnel; and (3) eliminates the burden of proof requirement in establishing a blood-borne infectious disease presumption in order for specified safety members to receive disability retirement benefits.

This bill provides that when there is a totally dependent minor child of a local safety or California Highway Patrol member, as specified, the workers' compensation death benefit would continue only until the dependent child reached age 18 but would provide retroactive death benefits to child of public safety officers killed in the line of duty prior to January 1, 1990.

This bill establishes a compensable injury presumption for lifeguards employed by the Department of Parks and Recreation and local government agencies with respect to skin cancer.

1) permits a health care provider or hospital and a Workers' Compensation contracting manager, employer, or carrier to contract for reimbursement rates that are different from those in the Workers' Compensation Official Medical Fee Schedule (OMFS); and

2) extends the sunset date of an interim modified payment level in the
OMFS for implantable hardware and instrumentation costs for spinal related surgeries and other expensive surgeries until the regular biennial review of the entire fee schedule is promulgated.

This bill requires an employer or insurer to provide its bill reviewer with all documentation submitted by a physician, along with a copy of the billing and any preauthorization for services.

This bill permits physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) to determine and report on an injured workers' entitlement to workers' compensation benefits, as specified.

This bill creates a rebuttable presumption under Workers' Comp that lower back impairment developing or manifesting itself in a peace officer employed by the California Highway Patrol or member of a city of county local police department or a county sheriff's office arises out of and in the course of employment

This bill prohibits proceeds of workers' compensation death benefits received by a dependent from being included when determining financial need for eligibility for Scholarships.

Governor Davis wrote in his veto message:

"This bill would provide a peace officer employed by the Department of Fish and Game, Department of Parks & Recreation or the Department of Toxic Substances Control who develops cancer, with the presumption that the illness was job-related for purposes of workers' compensation, unless proven otherwise.

"When an employee contracts cancer or any other disease because of job-related duties they now receive workers compensation. This legislation is overly broad. Therefore, I am vetoing this bill.

a) eliminating the Workers' Compensation Administration Revolving Fund Assessment (user funding) levied on employers for 20% of the costs of administration of California's workers' compensation programs and shifting these costs to the General Fund;
b) creating a new "Court Administrator" to oversee the adjudication process;
c) enhancing activities to identify illegally uninsured employers;
d) expanding the use of arbitration to resolve any disputed issue;
e) revising the Division of Workers' Compensation's Audit process;
f) creating eight new workers' compensation judge teams; and
g) mandating a comprehensive study of the workers' compensation adjudication process patterned after the Judicial Council's review of the California courts;

"I believe strongly that it is time to increase the level of compensation benefits offered to injured workers. It is also time to make significant improvements to the system so it better serves both the injured workers and all Californians. A comprehensive bill to improve the system should have four goals:

"1) Providing a significant benefit increase for injured workers; 2)
Promoting early and sustained return to work within the person's medical and work restrictions; 3) Implementing effective medical cost containment measures while assuring the quality of care provided; and 4) Targeting benefit dollars to achieve the best outcomes for injured workers.

"I am concerned about the net economic impact of SB 71 and AB 1176 in these shaky economic times since I do not believe the two bills taken
together adequately address the final three goals listed above.

"Since there is a general agreement about the need to increase benefits for injured workers, I believe that if we work together, the legislature, my staff and the interested parties can craft a comprehensive bill reaching all four goals before the 2002 legislative session begins. For the above reasons, I must veto this bill."

It also requires that a working warehouse that employs more than 50 employees to report to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to report all know injuries require hospitalization, including emergency medical room treatment or deaths occurring to customers as a result of falling merchandise within 30 days of December 31, 2002 and December 31, 2003.

2) mandated that Board members' service on the Board automatically terminate upon the completion of their terms of office;

3) specified that the Board's labor representatives must be from "organized labor";

4) required the Chair to designate a member to act as Chair in his/her absence; and

5) specifies the manner in which appointments to the Board may be legally challenged.

Governor Davis stated in his veto message:

"I object to the provision in this measure that requires that at the expiration of each member's term, the member automatically ceases to serve. Public policy is better served by allowing members to serve an additional 60 days.

2) would also require the certification of conveyance companies, as well as the personnel who install, inspect and repair conveyances;

3) require the Board to incorporate a variety of national standards (ANSI standards) into Title 8 and would require that Title 8 be constantly updated to incorporate the most recent version of the ANSI standards; and

4) also expand the Board's existing mandate to adopt regulations for elevator emergency operations to require such regulations for all conveyances covered by this bill.

Governor Davis' veto message stated:

"This bill would substantially revise existing law, as it applies to conveyances, to cover escalators, platform and stairway chair lifts, dumbwaiters, material lifts, moving walks, and automated people movers. Among other changes, it would require that no conveyances, or part of, may be erected, constructed, installed, or changed without a permit from the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the Department of Industrial Relations.

"My administration has increased funds and hired more inspectors to improve workplace safety. This bill, however, would for the first time require government to inspect and oversee the installation of elevators in private homes.

For this reason, I must veto this bill."

It was very similar in content to SB 123 (Escutia) previously vetoed.
Governor Davis' Veto Message:

"The existing statutes regarding the composition and appointments to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board have been effective and should be left in tact. There is merit in allowing board members to serve until their successors are appointed and qualified, as the current law allows. Because this bill increases the potential for vacancies on the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, which could compromise the Board's ability to protect the health and safety of California's workers, I cannot sign this legislation."

This bill would permit a petition requesting an agency shop agreement and an election to implement an agency fee arrangement to be filed only after the recognized employee organization has requested the public agency to negotiate the agreement and, beginning 7 working days after the public agency receive the request, the two parties have had 30 calendar days to attempt good faith negotiations.

This bill requires that the Department of Insurance is to be included as a member of the Joint Enforcement Strike Force on the Underground Economy.

This bill would require an agency to:

1) state an estimated date and time for production or records in its response to a Public Records Act requests; and

2) assist any member of the public in formulating a Public Records Act request to maximize the possibility of member of the public receiving documents

This bill authorizes school district governing boards to use a design-build process, instead of the design-bid-build process, for procuring bids on the design and construction of school construction process in order to reduce project costs, expedite project completion, and provide design features not achievable through the design-bid-build process.

1) clarifies that all public works projects financed through the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Banks issuance of industrial development bonds (IDBs) must comply with provisions of the Labor Code pertaining to payment of prevailing wages;

2) amends the definition of "public works" in Labor Code section 1720(a) to include certain installation work, and defines the phrase "paid for in whole or in part out of public funds" in section 1720(a);

3) provides exemptions from prevailing wage requirements for certain private construction projects; certain private residential housing projects; and, the construction or rehabilitation of certain affordable housing financed with public funds; and

4) exempts from the definition of public funds certain state tax credits.

This bill would have created a Labor Agency that consists of Department of Industrial Relations, Fair Employment and Housing, Employment Development, Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Public Employment Relations Board and the Fair Employment and Housing Commission.

In his veto message: Governor Davis stated:

"The working men and women of California and our economy would benefit from a mor coordinated effort by the various state departments charged with ensuring a well-trained, healthy, safe and prosperous workforce. I believe that the Department of Industrial Relations and the Employment Development Department could provide better service by being combined within a single entity. More review, however, is necessary to determine what other components of the state, if any, should be organized in this fashion.

"I have asked my Director of the Department of Industrial Relations to work with the appropriate people and make a recommendation to me by the end of the year."

It also prohibited the secret monitoring of employee e-mail and computer records.

Governor Davis' veto message:

"This bill would require employers, by March 1, 2002, to execute signed or electronically verifiable agreements between an employer and employees regarding the right of the employer to monitor the e-mail traffic and computer files of employees. If such agreements are not provided, the bill prohibits employers from monitoring business computers by employees to guard against inappropriate business or personal uses.

"Under current law, employers are potentially liable if the employer's agents or employees use the employer's computers for improper purposes, such as sexual harassment, defamation and the like. It therefore follows that any employer has a legitimate need to monitor, either on a spot basis or at regular intervals, such company property, including e-mail traffic and computer files stored on either employer-owned hard drives, diskettes or CD ROMs.

"This bill places unnecessary and complicating obligations on employers and may likely to lead to litigation by affected employees over whether the required notice was provided and whether it was read and understood by the employee. I support reasonable privacy protections for employees in the workplace and my Administration proposed amendments which would carry out the intent of the bill without imposing undue regulatory burdens and potential legal exposure to businesses for doing what any employee should assume is the employer's right when they accept employment. Senator Bowen rejected the proposed amendments. Thus, I must veto the bill a third time."

Governor Davis' veto message: