Monday, September 21, 2020
| Government Affairs and Merit Shop Advocacy |
Note to Readers: We are sending out the GA bulletin a little early because of several new bills signed by Governor Gavin Newsom – when he wasn’t fighting California’s raging wildfires.
AB 1867 – Supplemental Paid Sick Leave for COVID – It provides 80 hours of sick leave for Covid-19 reasons. It applies to those employers with 500 or more employees. It went into effect Friday. An updated alert from Fisher & Phillips LLP is here.
SB 1159 – Workers’ compensation presumption for COVID – creates a presumption that an employee who contracted COVID-19 did so at work. The employee does not have to provide any further proof. Importantly, this is an urgency statute and goes into effect immediately. It has a reporting requirement and mandates that employers go back in time and report previous COVID cases back to July 6th within the next 30 days. So, it’s essential to pay close attention to this one because it requires some immediate action. (Fisher & Phillips summary is here)
AB 685 – COVID-19 Employer Reporting Requirement imposes an employer reporting requirement for COVID-19 cases (Fisher & Phillips summary is here). It goes into effect on January 1, 2021.
SB 1383 - CFRA Expansion Bill – This bill dramatically expands CFRA leave to apply to employers with five or more employees and expands the scope of “family members” for whom employees can take leave to include many additional categories. It will go into effect on January 1, 2021. It will also impact larger employers already covered by the CFRA and result in “stacking” of leave under the FMLA. In other words, an employee can now take 12 weeks of leave to care for a sibling under the new CFRA, and then take 12 more weeks under the FMLA for their health condition (Fisher & Phillips summary is here).
Note to Readers: We’ll report again when he signs more bills of importance...
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87 United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, September 18, at 87. Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton and confirmed to the court in 1993. She was the second woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court. The average vacancy length on the Supreme Court since 1962—when defined as the length of time elapsed between a Justice’s departure date and the swearing-in of their successor—is 88 days. Four of these vacancies lasted for only a few hours each; the successor was sworn in the same day the retiring Justice officially left office. The longest vacancy under this definition was 422 days, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. In related news - The U.S. Senate confirmed eight nominees to U.S. District Court judgeships. The 94 U.S. District Courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal courts. The U.S. Senate has confirmed 216 of President Trump’s Article III judicial nominees—two Supreme Court justices, 53 appellate court judges, 159 district court judges, and two U.S. Court of International Trade judges—since January 2017.
Trump, Pence criticize U.S. Chamber CEO President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence condemned the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during a phone call Thursday, venting their frustrations over its recent endorsement of nearly two dozen vulnerable House Democratic freshmen, two sources familiar with the call told Axios. WECA, who has a seat on the Government Advocacy Committee that approved the endorsements, voted no on the three California candidates (CA 10 Harder, CA 21 Cox, and CA 48 Rouda) Story
Blanca Rubio takes over as moderate Democrat leader Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) will take over as Sacramento’s informal moderate Democrat caucus chair. The group is less an official caucus than a grouping of business-friendly Democrats, many of whom drew campaign support from industry groups or defeated more liberal, labor-backed Democrats. The elevation adds to Rubio’s clout and gives a road map to interest groups seeking to influence or derail the legislation. The caucus’ leadership has turned over frequently in recent years. Rubio takes over from Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), who cast the deciding vote to pass business-opposed family leave legislation this year. Rubio announced her appointment on Thursday — the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom signed that measure, SB 1383 (Jackson D-Santa Barbara). Democrats wield massive majorities in both houses of the Legislature, making moderate Democrats more influential than Republicans. Rubio consistently rates as one of the most business-aligned, least liberal Democrats. [Politico]
California’s Unemployment Dept Stands Down for Two Weeks California's embattled unemployment agency will not accept new unemployment claims for the next two weeks, taking a recommendation from a governor-appointed Strike Team dispatched less than two months ago, its director announced late Saturday night. The Newsom administration Saturday released a report with recommendations on improving California's embattled unemployment agency, from adopting a commercially available identity verification tool to taking a two-week "reset" period before accepting applications from first-time applicants. Meanwhile, Employment Development Department head Sharon Hilliard wrote that it would take until the end of January to get through the current backlog. She said the agency "is proactively looking at ways to reduce that timeline. Alternatively, if no changes were made, the EDD would still be working through the current backlog well into July 2021.” [Politico]
Robots, Veterans, Apprenticeships: What’s Next for California’s Job Market CalMatters reports, “It’s just one facet of California’s economic recovery, but the state’s unemployment rate is starting to drop after an unprecedented spike during coronavirus lockdowns. The state’s jobless rate fell to 11.4% in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, down from a record 16.4% unemployment this spring. The unemployment rate has dipped below the rate of the Great Recession a decade ago. Still, it remains more than twice the 3.9% rate in February.” They quote Abby Snay, Deputy Secretary for the Future of Work at California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, who said her agency is among those focused on forging other kinds of career “bridges” and “on-ramps,” including apprenticeships in fields like cybersecurity, health care, and food safety. Perhaps Snay should attend one of the CAC meetings where the building trades unions insist upon approving every new apprenticeship program submitted to DAS and supervised by the newish IACA. Story
Supreme Court Makes Local Tax Hikes Easier Dan Walters writes, “The California Supreme Court last week handed a big victory to the advocates of higher taxes. Without comment, the justices declined to take up a state appellate court decision that would allow specialized local government taxes to be increased by a simple majority of voters if placed on the ballot by initiative petitions rather than by the governments themselves. Story
State Government Trifectas Ballotpedia describes a state government trifecta as a “single-party government when one political party holds three positions in a state's government.” Here is what the USA looks like. It could be helpful when making business expansion plans. Story |
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| Racial quotas have an ugly pedigree. California shouldn’t try to bring them back. “In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University of California’s racial quotas for college admissions were unconstitutional because they treated applicants not as individuals, but simply as members of a racial or ethnic group. Quotas soon became a thing of the past. Or so we thought. Shockingly, in 2020, the California Legislature has reverted once again to racial balancing. If the governor signs AB 979 into law, every publicly traded corporation headquartered or incorporated in California will be subject to an “underrepresented community” quota. All corporations must have at least one member who belongs to a certain racial group or the LBGT+ community; the exact number depends on the board’s size. Corporations between 4 and 9 members must fill two seats. Corporations with more than nine members must fill three.” Story |
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Richard Markuson
WECA Government Affairs Advocate, Pacific Advocacy Group |
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Dear WECA supporter,
It is our pleasure to provide you with this bi-weekly political update from WECA. Please feel free to contact WECA at (877) 444-9322 or info@goweca.com for more details about any of the articles included in this political update.
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About WECA
WECA is the premier independent merit shop contractors' association in the Western United States. We provide innovative training and education programs, critical business services, and responsive customer support to surpass the needs of our members and students. We are federally and state-approved, and our top-quality electrical training has found a nationwide audience. For over 90 years, we have been training the next generation of electricians, and advocating for and protecting fair and open competition in the electrical industry. |
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