Legal Developments
Recent California employment-law developments in Legislation.
Assembly Bill 751 extends indefinitely California’s rest-period exemption for safety-sensitive workers at petroleum facilities and adds refineries that process alternative feedstock.
Assembly Bill 858 extends California’s recall and retention rights for laid-off workers in hotel, event center, airport, and building-service enterprises, keeping Labor Code section 2810.8 operative until January 1, 2027.
Assembly Bill 889 amends the Labor Code’s prevailing-wage rules, removing a director-issued annualization exception, revoking prior exemptions, and shifting the burden to employers to prove their benefit credits were calculated correctly.
Assembly Bill 288 lets certain private-sector workers petition California’s Public Employment Relations Board to enforce organizing and bargaining rights when the National Labor Relations Board cedes or loses jurisdiction, with phased-in case deadlines beginning in 2026.
Assembly Bill 692 bars employment contracts that make workers pay an employer, training provider, or debt collector when a job or work relationship ends, for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2026.
Senate Bill 261 lets courts impose a civil penalty of up to three times an unpaid wage judgment that stays unsatisfied for 180 days, and requires fee and cost awards to prevailing plaintiffs enforcing such judgments.
Senate Bill 464 requires employers to store pay-data demographic information apart from personnel records and, beginning in 2027, expands the pay data report to 23 job categories. It also makes civil penalties mandatory when the Civil Rights Department requests them.
Senate Bill 590 expands California’s paid family leave program to cover time off to care for a seriously ill “designated person,” effective January 1, 2026, with the new eligibility rules operative July 1, 2028.
Senate Bill 597 replaces the direct-contractor liability rule for private construction contracts entered on or after January 1, 2026, adding Labor Code section 218.9 and creating a joint-check option for benefit contributions.
Senate Bill 294 requires California employers to give employees an annual written notice of workplace and constitutional rights, offer an emergency-contact option, and notify that contact if an employee is arrested or detained at work.