Keeping up with the numerous legal updates in 2020 kept every business on their toes. However, 2021, promises to be just as busy. There are a myriad of new laws that have recently been enacted or were effective as of January 1, 2021. We provide an important review of the most important new laws to be aware of in this blog. Very few years has there been a need to enact and pass so much legislation. Much of it has been in response to the pandemic. These new laws will, in many cases, require action for each business. Contact Platinum HR today today to ensure you have the correct processes and procedures in place to ensure legal compliance in 2021.
COVID-19 related Laws
Cal OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Regulation- Effective 11/30/20, these new regulations require that employers implement a site-specific written COVID-19 Prevention Program to address COVID-19 health hazards, correct unsafe or unhealthy conditions and provide face coverings. When there are multiple COVID-19 infections or outbreaks at the worksite, employers must provide COVID-19 testing and notify public health departments. The regulations also require accurate record keeping and reporting of COVID-19 cases. These new regulations are comprehensive and do require action from each business. Platinum HR can assist your business with the required COVID-19 Prevention Plan.
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 - Creates the presumption that if an employee contracts COVID-19 within 14-days after they worked onsite, that the case is considered Workers Compensation. This presumption exists for employees who suffer illness or death resulting from COVID-19, on or after 7/6/20 through 1/1/23. This does not apply to employees that are working from home. The new law requires employers with five or more employees, who know or reasonably should know that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19, to report to their claims administrator in writing within three business days.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) - Effective 4/1/20, required private employers with less than 500 employees to provide employees with 80 hours of paid sick leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19 and up to 10 weeks of paid, job-protected leave for employees who are unable to work due to the need to care for a child whose school is closed or the unavailability of a child care provider due to COVID-19.
However, on 12/21/20, lawmakers decided they would not extend the FFCRA leaves beyond the 12/31/20 expiration. It is now an option, not a requirement. Employers may decide if their company will continue to provide paid leave and, therefore, be eligible for the payroll tax credit. As currently drafted, the payroll tax credit option is available until 3/31/21. Each company will need to immediately decide if it will continue to provide both paid sick leave and family leave to employees. The decision should be consistently applied to all employees.
minimum wage & salary
Statewide Minimum Wage - Effective 1/1/21, California’s minimum wage increased to $14 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees and $13 per hour for employers with 25 or fewer employees.
Statewide Minimum Salary - Effective 1/1/21, the minimum salary threshold for exempt employees increased to $58,240 per year for employers with 26 or more employees, and $54,080 per year for employees with 25 or fewer employees. Note- local minimum wage in certain cities may be higher than California state minimum wage.
Leave of Absence/sick leave
SB 1383 - California Family Rights Act (CFRA) Expansion to Small Employers - Effective 1/1/21, this law now significantly expands the protections of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to employees of business with at least 5 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 of an employee’s family member in the Armed Forces of the United States. It also broadens the definition of “family members” beyond what is covered under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which may require large employers to administer leave under the CFRA and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) separately, for the same employee.
AB 2992 - Victim Leave - Effective 1/1/21 - Previously, employers of all sizes were required to provide job-protected leave to victims of stalking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. That law has now been amended to include victims of any crime that caused physical or mental injury or a threat of physical injury. The law entitles employees who are victims to take time off from work to “obtain any relief.” This includes, but isn’t limited to, taking steps to ensure their or their child’s health, safety, or welfare, such as by trying to get a restraining order.
Employees are also entitled to leave if their family member has died because of a crime. For purposes of this law, “family member” includes children, parents, spouses, and siblings as well as anyone who has an equivalent close association with the employee.
AB 2017 - Employee Sick Leave/Kin Care - Existing law requires employers to permit an employee to use paid sick leave to attend to the illness of a family member and prohibits an employer from denying an employee the right to use paid sick leave or take discriminatory action against an employee for using or attempting to use sick leave to attend to such an illness. Assembly Bill 2017 now clarifies that the employee may solely designate which type of sick leave is used when taking a sick day.
Diversity & Harassment
AB 1343 - Anti-Harassment Training - Deadline 1/1/21 - All companies with five or more employees must provide one hour of sexual-harassment prevention training to non-supervisory 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. Platinum HR offers the training online.
AB 979 – Appointment of Directors from Underrepresented Communities -Publicly held corporations must begin to diversify their boards beginning in 2021 or face substantial fines. Assembly Bill 979 requires publicly held corporations headquartered in California to have a minimum of one director from an “underrepresented community” no later than the close of the 2021 calendar year. By December 31, 2022, a corporate board with four to nine directors must have two directors from underrepresented communities, and a board with nine or more directors must have three directors from underrepresented communities. AB 979 defines “director from an underrepresented community” as “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.”
MANDATED REPORTER
AB 1963 – Human Resources Professional as Mandated Reporter
California Penal Code section 11165.7 adds “human resource employee” of a business with five or more employees who employs minors, to the definition of “mandated reported” under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. A human resource employee is defined as an employee designated to accept complaints of misconduct under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. The law also identifies as mandated reporters of sexual abuse, front-line supervisors if their duties require direct contact with, and supervision of, minors. Failure to report known or reasonably suspected child abuse or neglect subjects the human resources employee and other mandated reporters to a misdemeanor for failure to report, punishable by up to six months in county jail plus a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Employers subject to the law are also required to provide training to employees who have reporting duties.
