Governor Gavin Newsom has signed several employment related bills to close the current legislative session.
Extension of SPSL
It was days of “will he, won’t he” but Governor Newsom did eventually sign an extension of the current Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) until the end of this year. SPSL provides employees with paid time off for COVID-19 related reasons.
Pay transparency
Effective January 1, all employees will have the ability to request the pay scale for their current position. Employers with 15 or more employees will be required to include the pay scale for their open position in the job posting. SB 1162 defines pay scales as “the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position.”
Update since the last summary: The Division of Labor Standard Enforcement (DLSE) released their initial FAQ’s on December 28, 2022. A major takeaway is that you can post the starting pay rate as opposed to a pay range.
Bereavement time off
Required bereavement leave has come to California. Employers with 5 or more employees will need to provide up to five days of unpaid time for the death of a qualified family member. A family member would be a child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law. Employees are eligible to take this time after they have completed 30 days of employment.
Update since the last summary: This is per calendar year, not for each death of a family member.
Addition of “designated persons” to CFRA
Starting January 1, employees covered under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) will have additional protections. Employees will be able to select a “designated person” to take care of and qualify your employee for up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave. This person does not need to be related by blood, but their association should be “equivalent of a family relationship.” The bill does not give much more clarification than that.
Employees may designate only one person for every 12-month period.
Update since the last summary: You should not require employees to designate their person in advance. For example, this is not something that should be set at the beginning of each year rather, at the beginning of each leave request.
Reach out to your consulting team for additional information.
COVID-19 requirements extended
The requirement to provide required COVID-19 notices has been extended through January 1, 2024. Currently, you are required to provide notice to individuals that test positive for COVID-19 and provide individual notices to those that were identified as close contacts (was set to expire on 12/31/22). AB 2693 allows employers to post a general notice post-close contact as opposed to individual notices. This is set to go into effect on January 1, 2023.
Update since the last summary: It has been clarified that Cal/OSHA will adopt these notification changes into the new COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations (more on this in a later post).
Employee retaliation during emergency working conditions
Governor Newsom has signed SB 1044 in response to employee concerns of unsafe working conditions. This bill allows employees to refuse to report to work or allows them to leave the workplace if they have reasonable belief that the workplace is unsafe. This stems from previous concerns during wildfire season.
An emergency condition is defined in the bill as:
Conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons or property at the workplace or worksite caused by natural forces or a criminal act.
An order to evacuate a workplace, a worksite, a worker’s home, or the school of a worker’s child due to natural disaster or a criminal act.
This does NOT include a health pandemic so would not cover employees who claim they do not feel comfortable reporting to work due to COVID-19.
The bill defines “reasonable belief” to mean “a reasonable person, under the circumstances known to the employee at the time, would conclude there is a real danger of death or serious injury if that person enters or remains on the premises.”
Reach out to your consulting team for guidance.
Cannabis protections for employees (2024)
Employers in California will need to evaluate their hiring practices in addition to their drug policies. AB 2188 prohibits you from making hiring or and employment related decisions based on nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites being found in a pre-employment drug test or during the course of an employment related drug test. This will be a large undertaking, so it does not go into effect until January 1, 2024.
Our full summary on this bill is coming soon.
For questions or inquiries, please reach out to: