In the wake of a recent trial court decision finding that minor league baseball players are year-round employees, California State Senator Josh Becker has introduced legislation proposing that California enact the Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights.

Commenting on his proposed legislation Senator Becker stated, “I introduced Senate Bill (SB) 1248 to create the Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights and to clear the way for better wages, better treatment and fair contracts for these athletes. It’s only fitting that the legislative movement for Minor Leaguers’ rights begins in California.”

SB 1248 would define a minor league baseball player as a person who is employed to play baseball for a minor league team that is affiliated with a major league baseball team and who plays, resides, or is employed in California. It would drastically reduce the current seven (7) year time period that a minor league player can remain under a Major League Baseball team’s contractual control. It would expressly prohibit an employment contract entered into on and after January 1, 2023, from having a term in excess of 4 years.

Using similar legislation to the California bill signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2021 which granted college athletes the right to market and profit from their name, image, and likeness as a model, this bill would require that minor league player employment contracts permit a player to use his name, image, or likeness as he sees fit, the legal right to receive compensation for that use, and any such provision prohibiting such use would be void and unenforceable. SB 1248 would also protect a player’s exercise of the right to use his name, image, or likeness by prohibiting retaliation in any form against a player as a consequence of the exercise of this right.

Becker further commented, “Baseball is called America’s pastime and Minor Leaguers are just asking for what every American worker wants. These players are asking for fair treatment and the opportunity to make a decent living under decent conditions.”

Jackson Lewis continues to track legislation affecting employers. If you have questions about this legislation or issues related to name, image, and likeness regulations contact a Jackson Lewis attorney or any member of the firm’s Collegiate and Professional Sports Practice Group to discuss further.

Building on board gender diversity requirements, California passed Assembly Bill (AB) 979 in 2020.  This statute requires publicly held corporations headquartered in California to diversify their boards of directors with directors from “underrepresented communities,” specifically those individuals who self-identify as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. AB 979 required boards to diversify by December 31, 2021.

Starting this year in March, the California Secretary of State will publish annual reports on its website documenting compliance with these diversification requirements. Companies that fail to timely comply will be fined $100,000 for the first violation and $300,000 for subsequent violations.

Read the full article on Jackson Lewis’ Corporate Governance & Internal Investigations Advisor.

While the Cal/OSHA Standards Board (Board) has received much more attention in the last two years relating to the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) the Board is turning to some more basic issues pertaining to workplace safety. At its upcoming April 21, 2022 meeting the Board will consider revisions to first aid kit requirements both under the Construction Safety Orders and the General Industry Safety Orders.

The proposed revisions will give employers two options for ensuring their first-aid kids are compliant: (1) contents can be determined by an employer-authorized licensed physician; or (2) supplies can be determined according to tables of minimum contents, included in the proposed regulation.

For the general industry regulation, the revisions would remove some items from the supply list such as safety pins and add items such as medical exam gloves.

In addition to the public hearing on April 21st, employers can submit comments from March 4, 2022, until April 21, 2022, to the Board.

If you have questions about the Cal/OSHA regulations or related workplace safety issues, please reach out to the Jackson Lewis attorney with whom you often work or any member of our Workplace Safety and Health Team.

Last year, the California Court of Appeal ruled in All of Us or None of Us. v. Hamrick that an individual’s date of birth and driver’s license number could not be used as data identifying a criminal defendant in public records. Based on that decision, many courts around the state redacted birth dates and driver’s license numbers from their indexes, causing routine background checks to be much more difficult to obtain. Consumer reporting agencies have historically relied on these court indexes to complete criminal background checks in California.  The inability to verify an individual’s criminal record based on personal identifiers such as date of birth and a driver’s license number has adversely impacted these agencies’ ability to satisfy the accuracy of report requirements under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the like.

A proposed bill, Senate Bill (SB) 1262 may resolve the issue by requiring publicly accessible electronic criminal defendant indexes to permit searching and filtering of results based on a defendant’s driver’s license number or date of birth, or both.

While SB 1262 is pending in the legislature, employers should carefully review background checks and continue to follow the process of individualized assessment and notice required by state, federal, and local ordinances when assessing if an employee or applicant should be disqualified from a position.

If you have questions about employment criminal background checks or related issues, please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

As COVID-19 restrictions loosen around the state, California’s legislature continues its consideration of legislation pertaining to the pandemic.

Assembly Bill (AB) 1993 which was introduced in February proposes that employers require employees and independent contractors who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to show proof of vaccination. Current employees and independent contractors would need to confirm their vaccination status on January 1, 2023, and new employees and independent contractors would need to show proof at the time of hiring and contracting. As with vaccine mandates the state passed last year for healthcare and direct care workers, the legislation would allow for exemptions for individuals who have a medical condition or disability or because of a sincerely held religious belief.

The law would be administered by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and would allow for the DFEH to impose penalties on employers who fail to comply.

Jackson Lewis continues to track legislation pertaining to employers in California. If you have questions about vaccine mandates or related issues, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

California employment laws are exhaustive and comprehensive compliance may serve to be challenging for employers, especially when taking into account the patchwork of local ordinances pertaining to minimum wage, paid sick leave, and more.

At the minimum, employers doing business in the City of San Diego (City) should be aware of and in compliance with the following local ordinances:

Minimum Wage

Effective January 1, 2022, minimum wage for employers within the geographic boundaries of the City is $15.00, regardless of the business’ size.

Earned Sick Leave

The City also has its own paid sick leave ordinance. Employers may provide sick leave through an accrual method of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked or a front-loaded method of no less than 40 hours at the beginning of the benefit year.

Employers may limit an employer’s usage of earned leave to 40 hours per benefit year.

An employee may use earned sick leave for any of the following reasons:

  • The employee is physically or mentally unable to perform his or her duties due to illness, injury, or a medical condition.
  • The employee’s absence is to obtain a professional diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition.
  • The employee’s absence is for other medical reasons such as pregnancy or obtaining a physical examination.
  • The employee is providing care or assistance to a family member, with an illness, injury, or medical condition, including assistance in obtaining professional diagnosis or treatment of a medical condition.
  • The employee’s absence is necessary to obtain services due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
  • The employee’s place of business is closed by order of a public official due to a Public Health Emergency, or the employee is providing care or assistance to a child, whose school or childcare provider is closed by order of a public official due to a Public Health Emergency.

Posting and Notice

Every employer must post the earned sick leave and minimum wage notice published by the City in a visible place at any workplace or job site where an employee works.

Employers must also provide written notice to the employee of: the employer’s legal name, any fictitious business names, address, telephone number, and employer requirements of the ordinance including the employer’s method of providing earned sick leave.

Links to the notice and poster published by the city are available on the City’s compliance page.

If you have questions about compliance with San Diego’s local ordinances or related issues, feel free to contact one of our San Diego attorneys or the Jackson Lewis attorney with whom you often work.

While many employers are concerned with complying with the recently passed statewide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave, employers should also be aware of the interactions between regular paid sick leave and COVID-19 related absences. As such, employers are well-served to stay current on the latest updates for San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) recently issued a temporary update to its guidance regarding San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave ordinance and COVID-19. The following is a summary of the temporary changes made to that guidance.

Policies Requiring Doctor’s Notes

Under the temporarily amended guidance, policies or practices that require a doctor’s note or other documentation for the use of paid sick leave of more than five consecutive workdays (whether full or partial days) shall be deemed presumptively reasonable, provided an employee is using paid sick leave for a COVID-19 related reason and is not under a doctor’s care, the employer shall accept the employee’s attestation of the need for paid sick leave pursuant to current CDC guidelines and OLSE Rule 2.4, pertaining to potential abuse of sick leave. This change is temporary and only in effect for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

When the public health emergency ends, or upon a decision to revoke this temporary guidance, the guidance will revert back to the previous rule which stated that requiring a doctor’s note for the use of paid sick leave of three or fewer consecutive workdays shall be deemed unreasonable. The previous rule also stated that practices that required a doctor’s note for the use of paid sick leave of more than three workdays was deemed reasonable.

COVID-19 Related Reasons for Use of Paid Sick Leave

The temporary guidance sets forth several COVID-19 specific reasons for which an employee may use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave.  Those reasons are:

  • The employee takes time off work because public health officials or healthcare providers require or recommend an employee isolate or quarantine to prevent the spread of disease.
  • The employee takes time off work for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment or vaccination side effects.
  • The employee takes time off work because the employee’s business or a work location temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.
  • The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member to attend a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, who is experiencing vaccination side effects, or who is not sick but who public health officials or healthcare providers have required or recommended isolate or quarantine.
  • The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member whose school, childcare provider, senior care provider, or work temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.

Finally, the guidance makes it clear that workers who have been laid off by their employers are not eligible for paid sick leave. Employees also are not allowed to use sick leave to supplement a reduction in hours.  The guidance states that leave is only available to use for qualifying reasons when an employee is unable to work a portion of their scheduled hours.

If you have questions about compliance with San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave requirement or have questions about related issues, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

The Department of Industrial Relations’ (DIR) Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF) has announced an initiative to inspect publicly funded construction sites to ensure employers provide worker’s compensation and follow labor laws, including workplace health and safety requirements.

With this new focus, construction employers who work on public works projects should review their workplace compliance to avoid citations.

Cal/OSHA has a guidance page for construction employers which provides an overview of issues for employers to consider and additional guidance that is available.

Some of the compliance issues that construction employers should review include:

  • Access to Work Levels
  • Airborne Contaminants
  • Confined Spaces
  • Emergency Medical Services
  • Ergonomics
  • Fall Protection
  • Heat Illness Prevention
  • Injury and Illness Prevention Program
  • Personal Protective Equipment

These and many more compliance issues are further identified on Cal/OSHA’s guidance page for construction employers.  There are also administrative requirements that employers should review, including having required postings and documents, such as safety data sheets, available on site.

If you need assistance in conducting an audit of your Cal/OSHA compliance or have questions about handling a Cal/OSHA citation, please reach out to the Jackson Lewis attorney with whom you often work or any member of our Workplace Safety and Health Team.

The same week that California’s third round of COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave went into effect, the Governor released the state’s strategy for the endemic phase of COVID-19.

Aligning with the new endemic strategy, on February 28, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued revised guidance regarding masks. Effective March 1, 2022, vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are not required to wear masks in public settings, though it is still strongly recommended.

To address the fact that Cal/OSHA’s Amended COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) still required unvaccinated individuals in the workplace to wear a mask, the Governor issued an Executive Order, which suspends the general requirement that unvaccinated workers wear face coverings when indoors. In doing so, the Governor brings the ETS into alignment with the CDPH guidance. This allows employers to follow the CDPH guidance unless a more stringent local order applies. Nevertheless, employers should keep in mind that employees may still be required to wear face coverings under CDPH’s isolation and quarantine recommendations.

Universal masking is still required under the CDPH guidance in the following indoor settings:

  • Indoors in K-12 schools and childcare facilities (this will be lifted effective March 11, 2022)
  • On public transit
  • Emergency shelters and cooling and heating centers
  • Health care settings
  • State and local correction facilities and detention centers
  • Homeless shelters
  • Long term care settings and adult senior care facilities

Employers should continue to monitor local health departments, the California Department of Public Health, and Cal/OSHA for changes to COVID-19 workplace requirements. Employers can check Jackson Lewis’ COVID-19 Advisor for updates on workplace requirements in California and around the country.

If you have questions about COVID-19 workplace requirements or related issues, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.

On February 17, the California Senate introduced SB 1162, which—if passed—could give California the most aggressive pay transparency laws in the nation. Again. The draft California law enhances two common state law pay transparency strategies: proactive wage range disclosure and pay data reporting.

Read the full article on Jackson Lewis’ Pay Equity Advisor Blog.