The first major deadline of the 2019-2020 California Legislative Session was reached with the expiration of the February 25^th deadline for new proposed bills to be introduced.  Hardly surprisingly, there were a significant number of proposed employment bills, many of which continued building upon last year’s #MeToo-related developments and many others were bills that were vetoed by former Governor Jerry Brown.  These include bills that would:

• Prohibit mandatory pre-employment arbitration provisions regarding Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and/or Labor Code violations (AB 51);
• Clarify that employees who received sexual harassment training in 2018 need not be re-trained in 2019 (SB 778);
• Amend the Labor Code to preclude discrimination or retaliation against sexual harassment victims and their family members (AB 171 and AB 628);
• Extend the statute of limitations for FEHA claims from one to three years (AB 9) and for Labor Code claims from six months to three years (AB 403);
• Expand CFRA leave to employers with 20 or more employees and eliminate the hours of service requirement (AB 1224);
• Further expand workplace lactation accommodation requirements (SB 142);
• Prohibit so-called “no rehire” provisions in employment-related settlement agreements (AB 749);
• Address the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling regarding independent contractors (AB 5 and AB 71);
• Encourage employers to assist employees with student loan repayment assistance (AB 152);
• Expand “paid family leave” wage replacement benefits (AB 196 and SB 135) and
• Require larger employers to submit annual “pay data reports” (SB 171).