California Bill Update

Mike Stephens

News Reporter

A Legislative Update from Sacramento,

AB 701 (Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego) establishes an entirely new regulatory regimen for warehousing and food processing employers with 100 or more employees at a site or 1000 or more statewide who use performance metrics, making such metrics difficult and legally hazardous to use. The Farm Bureau opposes AB 701 which passed the Senate on September 8 on a vote of 26-11 with three absent or not voting. Earlier, AB 701 was amended to significant narrowing its scope and removing language requiring Cal/OSHA to promulgate a regulation to protect employees from the putative dangers of working too fast to meet performance metrics.

SB 606 (Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach) creates a new classification of employment law violations that will cause some employers to be dubbed “egregious employers” and would thereby subject them to much higher penalty levels. These would be levied on an employee-by-employee basis rather than location by location. The Farm Bureau opposes SB 606 which passed the Assembly. The Assembly vote of 52-19 with eight absent on September 8.

Also,

SB 410 (Connie Levya, D-Chino) exempts occupational safety and health regulations from the standard regulatory impact analysis current required of all proposed regulations with an economic impact in excess of $50 million. SB 410 was ordered to the Assembly inactive file on September 8. The Farm Bureau also opposes the bill.