Although the California Legislature is on recess, there are several new legislative developments, including:

• A new law providing defamation protections for sexual harassment complaints, investigations and during reference checks (AB2770); and
• Various municipal-level minimum wage increases effective July 1, 2018.

A number of significant employment-related bills have also moved forward, including bills that would:

• Expand the scope of currently mandated harassment training to smaller employers, and for non-supervisory employees (SB 1300, SB 1343, and AB 3081);
• Impose new limits on settlement agreements regarding sexual harassment claims, including prohibiting confidentiality provisions (SB 820 and SB 1300);
• Amend the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to impose individual liability upon harassers who also engage in post-complaint retaliation (SB 1038);
• Prohibit mandatory pre-employment arbitration provisions regarding the FEHA and/or Labor Code violations (SB 1300 and AB 3080);
• Extend the statute of limitations for pursuing sexual harassment claims from one year to three years (AB 1870);
• Require employers to retain records of sexual harassment complaints for ten years (AB 1867);
• Update and potentially materially expand workplace lactation accommodation requirements (AB 1976 and SB 937); and
• Require larger employers to submit annual “pay data reports” to state agencies (SB 1284).