CHANGES TO EMPLOYMENT REGULATIONS IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2024 If you’re an employer in California, what new regulations are you required to enact??

Like they do each year, the California legislature has enacted several new employment regulations for 2024 that includes a change in the minimum wage law.? After viewing and studying them, you’ll find a brief description of each change below with recommendations on how to incorporate those changes into your organizations Employee Handbook and Corporate Culture.

1.??? Minimum Wage Change: As of January 1st, the minimum wage increased to $16 per hour.? Accordingly, California employees must be paid a “Living Wage.”? If the employee is employed in a high-tech role and meets the definition of a tech worker, they must be paid a minimum wage of $55.58 per hour or $115,762 annually.

2.??? Enhanced California Paid Sick Leave: SB 616 builds upon the paid sick leave benefit of 10 years ago and is one of the most significant expansions of employer obligations regarding sick time leave.? Under SD 616 an employer must either:??? 1.) Frontload 40 hours/5 days of sick leave at the beginning of each year of employment. - ?OR? -?? 2.)? the employee accrues (or carries over) at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked (this means that the employer must allow employees to carry over sick leave; but, they can implement an 80 hour/10 day accrual cap; they can also limit the employee’s use to 40 hours for each year of employment.

3.??? New Employee Leave Entitlement for Reproductive Loss: Under this new regulation, the employer must allow employees 5 days of protected leave and, if they’ve suffered a reproductive loss event (defined as a failed adoption, failed surrogate or unsuccessful assisted reproduction).? The leave must be taken consecutively and within 12 months of said event.? However, the reproductive leave has no requirement that this leave be paid or not (that is the decision of the employer).? Additionally, unlike FLMA or other types of leaves, there is no paperwork that must be completed or sent to the state of California; however, the employer is prohibited from retaliating against any employee who exercises their right to leave.

4.??? Non-Competition Agreements:? For many decades, under California law, non-competes and non-solicitation agreements are outright prohibited.? However, under this new SB 699, a new section of the California Business and Professions Code provides that any contract that is void and unenforceable under the law.? This ban applies “regardless of whether the contract was signed and employment was maintained outside of California.

5.??? Wage Theft Prevention Notice: Section 2810.5 of the labor law requires employers to provide each employee with written notice at the time of their hire with basic terms such as pay, paydays, legal name of employer and any additional names that the employer does business with.

6.??? New Requirements for Workplace Violence Prevention Plan: While CA has had a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan in place for several years, in 2024 they chose to expand and implement a protection plan that includes, among other things, must include the following:

a.??? the names and/or job titles of the individuals responsible for implementing the plan, whether it be HR, Security or Engineering…

b.??? procedures to obtain the active involvement of employees in developing and implementing the plan including their participation in identifying, and evaluating and correcting workplace violence hazards;

c.??? procedures for the employer to respond to reports of violence and to prohibit retaliation against employees who report such incidents:

d.??? procedures to develop and provide training on the employer’s plan;

e.??? procedures for post-incident response and investigation;

f.???? procedures for the employer to review and update the plan for effectiveness at least annually.

????????????????????????????????????????????? i.???? Covered employees must also maintain detailed records regarding workplace violence hazards and/or corrections, as well as the employer’s investigation.?? ??????????

7.??? Elimination of Automatic Stay of Litigation Pending Arbitration Appeal: Under current law, trial court proceedings are automatically stayed pending an appeal of an order denying a motion to compel arbitration; however, effective Jan 1st, 2024, such as appeal will no longer automatically stay trial court proceedings.? Instead, employers may have to litigate the merits of the underlying claims while the case is appealed unless the Judge orders a stay.

8.??? Protections for Off-Site, Off-Duty Marijuana Use: AB 2188 and SB 700 amend the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) by adding provisions explicitly protecting a person’s off-site, off-duty marijuana use.? The new law, effective 01/01/24, prohibits employers from discriminating from discriminating against any employee or applicants because they have 1.) used marijuana in their off hours while off-site from the workplace 2.) were found to have non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in their hair, blood, urine or other bodily fluids by a drug screening test.? These provisions, however, do not cover all employees.? In fact, it explicitly exempts those in the building trades, pilots and air traffic controllers.? If, following an accident or workplace trauma, employers may still test for drugs (and take appropriate actions) if it was determined the employee used drugs in the workplace or just prior to starting their shift.? In other words, if the employee is impaired, the employer is within their right to discipline the worker.

9.??? New 90 Day Rebuttable Presumption of Workplace Retaliation: SB 497, also known as the Equal Pay and Anti-Retaliation Protection, Each section of the Labor Code amended by SB 497 protects its own category of employee action. Broadly speaking, these statutes prohibit employers from taking retaliatory action against employees who report a reasonable belief that the employer has violated some sort of law or regulation.

Under Labor Code section 1102.5, “protected activity” includes disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency that the employee reasonably believes involves a violation of state, local, or federal law or regulations, or refusing to participate in activity that would involve the violation of law Labor Code section 1102.5 also prohibits employers from making, adopting, or enforcing any policy that prevents an employee from disclosing such information to a government or law enforcement agency. The information the employee discloses can involve misconduct by either the employer or fellow employees.

Under Labor Code section 1197.5, protected activity would include an employee reporting suspected wage discrimination on the basis of an employee’s sex, race, or ethnicity. For example, if a female employee reports to her supervisor that she believes she is getting paid less, because of her gender, than a male colleague who is performing substantially similar work, she is engaging in protected activity.

Protected activity under section 98.6 would include, for example, an employee’s report that the employer failed to pay overtime wages properly or report of other wage-and-hour violations to the labor commissioner.

Author’s Note: This white paper was written by Mike Russell, Sr. HR Consultant and is taken from the Department of Labor’s website.? If you have any questions pertaining to the information provided, please don’t hesitate to contact Mike at his office or check out the DOL’s website.

Meanwhile, if you have any HR consulting needs or just want to ensure that you’re fully compliant with the litany of employment regulations in California, please don’t hesitate to contact Mike.? Don’t forget to ask about our flat-rate pricing for a Comprehensive HR Audit.? The audit will ensure that each/every aspect of California’s regulations are in place and, if not, Mike will assist in correcting any issue or finding that is not in compliance.

Mike can be reached at: 773 807 8437 and his LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://wwww.dhirubhai.net/in/orgdevsolutions/

[email protected]

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