September 2021

Read more about the new laws affecting employers in California.

The Governor has signed Assembly Bill 1506 (AB 1506) which extends the existing exemption for three more years for newspaper distributors and carriers from the “ABC Test” under Dynamex and Assembly Bill 5. The bill takes into account the reality that newspaper carriers often work for more than one newspaper, and requiring carriers to be

On September 27, 2021, the Governor of California signed Assembly Bill 73 (AB 73) which expands worker protections from wildfire smoke.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, California enacted Health & Safety Code section 131021 last year.  It requires the State Department of Public Health and Office of Emergency Services to establish a stockpile of

California’s Governor has signed Senate Bill 606 (SB 606), which authorizes Cal/OSHA to issue a citation for egregious violation of an occupational safety or health standard, order, special order, or regulation for each willful violation determined by Cal/OSHA, and count each employee affected by the violation as a separate violation for purposes of the issuance

On September 27, 2021, the Governor signed Senate Bill 62 (SB 62), which expands the definition of the garment manufacturing industry for purposes of wage claim enforcement to include brand guarantors.  A brand guarantor is a person who contracts for the performance of garment manufacturing.

SB 62 specifies that a garment manufacturer, contractor, or brand

On September 27, 2021, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1033 (AB 1033), which provides that employers must grant eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected time off from work annually for the purposes of providing care to a parent-in-law with a serious medical condition under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).

The bill also

Employers of all sizes, potentially including individual owners, managers and executives, should be aware of heavier penalties or jail time for engaging in wage theft. According to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, wage theft occurs anytime an employer does not pay workers what they are owed by law.

California’s Governor signed Assembly Bill 1003 (AB