The deadline for the California legislature to pass any bills expired on August 31^st. Not surprisingly, a number of significant employment bills passed this hurdle and were sent to Governor Jerry Brown for signature or veto.  These include bills that would:

• Require employers with five or more employees provide harassment training for both supervisory and non-supervisory employees (SB 1343);
• Impose new limits on settlement agreements regarding sexual harassment claims, including prohibiting confidentiality provisions (SB 820 and SB 1300);
• Prohibit mandatory pre-employment arbitration provisions regarding Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and/or Labor Code violations (SB 1300 and AB 3080);
• Amend the Labor Code to preclude discrimination or retaliation against sexual harassment victims and to impose joint liability upon client employers and labor contractors for sexual harassment (AB 3081);
• Extend the statute of limitations for FEHA claims from one to three years (AB 1870);
• Require employers to retain records of sexual harassment complaints for five years (AB 1867);
• Expand workplace lactation accommodation requirements, including to prohibit usage of a bathroom for employees to express milk (AB 1976 and SB 937);
• Impose new limits during criminal record background checks (SB 1412); and
• Require larger, publicly-traded California corporations to have a certain number of female directors (SB 826).