Keeping up with the numerous legal updates this year has most companies looking to streamline their compliance efforts. Very few years have there been a need like this one to enact and pass legislation to be immediately effective in response to the pandemic. Below is a round up of what you need to pay attention to and how to remain compliant. Contact an HR Consultant today to ensure your policies remain compliant in with these legal changes.

COVID-19 Laws

AB 685 - Notice Obligations for COVID-19 Exposures in the Workplace - Effective 1/1/21. This law dictates notice and reporting requirements in the event of a COVID-19 exposure and outbreak in the workplace while expanding Cal/OSHA’s authority to shut down worksites with serious violations. If there is a potential exposure in a worksite the employer must provide written notice of the exposure to all employees within one business day. This notice must include information regarding COVID-19-related benefits to which they may be entitled, worker's compensation, COVID-19-related leave, and paid sick leave, as well as the employer's anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies. It must also include the disinfection and safety plans that will be implemented.

SB 1159 - Workers Compensation Claims for COVID-19 Infected Employees - Currently effective - Creates the presumption that if an employee contracts COVID-19 within 14-days after they worked onsite, that the case is considered Workers Compensation. To note, this does not apply to employees that are working from home.

AB 1867 - COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick leave - Currently effective - This was created in response to the Federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Employers with 500+ employees as well as health care providers and first responders who were excluded from the emergency paid sick leave under the FFCRA are entitled to the same time off if they are under quarantine or isolation.

AB 1867 - Handwashing Requirements - Currently effective - Required employees working in food facilities to have ample time to wash their hands every 30-minutes or additionally as needed.

Leave of Absence Laws

SB 1383 - California Family Rights Act (CFRA) Expansion to Small Employers - Effective 1/1/21 - Expands the protections of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to employees of business with at least 5 employees (verses the current 50 or more employees). The amended CFRA will still grant 12 weeks of protected leave during a 12-month period due to bonding with a new child, care for themselves or a family member and due to a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee’s family member in the Armed Forces of the United States.

AB 2992 - Victim Leave - Effective 1/1/21 - Prohibits employers from discharging, discriminating or retaliating against employees who are a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, for taking time off from work to obtain help to ensure the health, safety or welfare of the victim or victim’s child or seek medical attention including mental health services related to an experience of crime or abuse.

Diversity & Harassment

AB 979 – Appointment of Directors from Underrepresented Communities - Effective 9/30/20 - Built upon a bill that was passed by the Senate in 2018 requiring a minimum number of females on the board of directors for publicly held corporations, AB 979 requires any publicly held corporation whose principal executive office is located in California to have a minimum number of one director from an underrepresented community by 12/31/21. Under the new law an underrepresented community means an individual who self-identifies 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.

SB 973 – Employer Pay Data Reporting - Effective 1/1/21 - Requires California private employers with 100 or more employees to submit a pay data report to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) by 3/31/21, and annually thereafter. This report is modeled much like the Federal EEO-1 reporting where wage and hours worked data is reported by 12 pay bands and 10 broad job categories, then classified by race, sex, and ethnicity. Additionally, this bill authorizes the DFEH to coordinate and enforce the collection of this information and report any alleged pay discrimination with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

SB 1343 - Anti-Harassment Training - Deadline 1/1/21 - In 2018 requirements for employers to provide anti-harassment training to all employees yearly was implemented with a deadline that is quickly approaching. All companies with five or more employees must provide one hour of sexual-harassment prevention training to nonsupervisory employees and two hours to supervisors and managers. This training must occur every two years and include specific requirements with initial compliance on 1/1/21.