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California Employment Law Update

The following is provided for general informational purposes only, and not intended to constitute legal advice.

Disclosure of Working Conditions

  • Applies to all employers
  • Prohibits an employer from disciplining, discriminating or dismissing an employee for disclosing working conditions – including wages
  • Prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to sign a waiver denying his/her right to disclose their wages

Payroll Records Inspection Rights

  • Applies to all employers, and all employees (full time and part time)
  • Employers must provide access to or copies of an employee’s payroll records within 21 days of a request by the employee

Background Check Guidelines

  • Applies to all employers and all employees (full time, part time and temporary)
  • If you use an outside vendor for a consumer investigative report, you must provide a copy within 3 business days, if requested
  • If you gather information internally, you need only provide ‘matters of public record’ within 7 days
  • In all cases you must provide a copy of the report if you take an adverse action based on the report
  • This legislation produces some conflict between California requirements and Federal requirements
  • Former employers are now immune from defamation when giving eligibility for rehire information to prospective employers

Change in ‘No Fault’ Leave Guidelines

  • Applies to all employers
  • Leave time taken to care for a family member cannot be used as cause for discipline and/or dismissal
  • Time taken to care for family members must be tracked separately, and cannot be used as the basis of the decision to discipline an employee

Notice of Mass Lay-Off, Termination, Relocation

  • You are covered by this regulation if you have had 75 or more employees in the last 12 months
  • An employee is defined as someone who worked for your company at least 6 months during the last 12 months – this applies to full time and part time workers
  • If 50 or more employees are affected, you must provide 60 days written notice to the affected employees, the Calif. EDD, the local workforce investment board and the chief elected official of each city and county affected

Personal Injury Statute

  • Applies to all employers and workers (full time, part time and temporary)
  • Extends the statute of limitations for personal injury suits from one to two years

Illegal Immigrant Damages – Back Pay

  • Applies to all employers; and all employees and applicants, current and former
  • Permits all persons the ability to recover back pay or other monetary damages for violation of various labor laws (i.e. discrimination, failure to hire, wrongful termination etc.); even if they were not legally entitled to employment in California
  • Prohibits inquiry into a person’s immigration status except for compliance with I-9 (INS) procedures

Expansion of Age Discrimination Protections

  • Applies to employers with 5 or more employees
  • Expands the Federal age discrimination protections to include selection for training and employee benefit programs

Paid Family Leave

Although the program does not become effective until 1/1/04, employers are urged to look at all leave, sick and vacation policies so they work effectively with Paid Family Leave. Additionally, consider the impact of paid leave on the size and consistency of your workforce. Small firms face a considerable challenge losing even one person for a few weeks.

  • Applies to all employers
  • Provides up to 6 weeks of paid time off (in a 12 month period) to bond with a new child or care for a family member
  • No minimum length of employment is required – so it is possible that an employee of 2 months could request 6 weeks of paid time off