More time off, paid childcare: How California lawmakers want to tackle COVID for workers
More paid sick days. Stiff penalties for unsafe workplaces. Childcare paid for by employers.
Those are some of proposals California legislators are pushing in new bills as they look to address the effects of the yearlong coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has already signed a number of bills, including one which will give low-income Californians $600 as well as grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses hurt by the pandemic. Newsom also signed a bill last week to send $2 billion to help schools reopen by April 1.
But California lawmakers are advocating for more. Here is what to know about the bills legislators have introduced to address the effects of the pandemic on working-class Californians:
More benefits, from paid sick days to childcare
Saying the pandemic has amplified the importance of benefits such as paid sick days for California workers, legislators are looking to boost them.
Assembly Bill 995 from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, calls for increasing the number of minimum paid sick days from three to five a year for California workers. The five days of paid sick leave must be available for employees to use by their 200th calendar day of employment, per bill.
Another bill from Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, would give workers at businesses with 25 or more employees up to 10 days off unpaid for the death of their direct family member. Workers at smaller businesses would have up to three days.
Finally, Assembly Bill 1179, introduced by Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, would require employers with 1,000 or more employees to pay for up to 60 hours a year for workers’ “backup childcare,” used when their regular provider can’t be utilized.
“COVID-19 has impacted women, and specifically women of color, at disproportionate rates,” Carrillo said in a statement to CNBC about the bill. “Now, more than ever, is the time to re-imagine and rebuild systems that work for women and that work for families.”
Safer workplaces
Concerned that the state is not fully reporting COVID-19 cases at work, San Bernardino Democratic Assemblywoman Eloise Gómez Reyes wrote Assembly Bill 654 to mandate disclosure of outbreaks by individual workplace.
It follows up on a law passed last year, which requires California’s Department of Public Health to report cases and outbreaks, but only in the form of data aggregated by industries (Even though AB 685 took effect Jan. 1, the department has yet to release any data).
The law, if passed, would take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Meanwhile, a bill introduced by Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, could let the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly called Cal/OSHA, much more severe financial penalties to employers responsible for unsafe work environments.
Per Senate Bill 606, Cal-OSHA would be required to issue a citation for each employee of a workplace, if it has exposed its workers to an egregious and willful violation of Cal-OSHA’s safety regulations.
The biggest COVID-19-related fine Cal-OSHA imposed over the last year was a $396,070 charge to San Quentin State Prison for nine violations. Gonzalez’s bill, if it was in effect, could have required Cal-OSHA to impose those violations for each of the prison’s hundreds of employees, significantly multiplying the amount of fine.
“We cannot allow large corporations to shrug aside their responsibilities. Paying fines that amount to no more than a tiny fraction of their profits and refusing to provide workers safe working conditions is irresponsible and unconscionable,” Gonzalez said in a statement announcing the bill.
The bill also would assume that any adverse action from an employer to an employee is retaliatory if it’s within 90 days of the worker reporting a potential violation of safety standards, requesting testing as a result of a COVID-19 exposure at workplace or disclosing a positive coronavirus diagnosis, unless the employer provides otherwise.
Finally, various bills call for workplace standards for certain workers.
Two bills introduced by Assemblywoman Gonzalez call for workplace standards for warehouse distribution center employees as well as those working in large chain fast-food restaurants. A bill introduced by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, calls for domestic service workers to be included in Cal/OSHA regulations; Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill from Durazo last year.
Help for laid-off workers?
Assemblywoman Gonzalez and Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, are again pushing for a bill that would require hospitality employers when rehiring to offer jobs first to the workers they laid off. Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year, saying it is “too onerous a burden on employers.”
Gonzalez’s office in its press release said this year’s bill is narrower, only covering workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have introduced a slew of bills aimed at helping businesses.
A bill introduced by Assemblyman Heath Flora, R-Ripon, would prohibit employees from suing employers for claims during the pandemic, under certain circumstances.
A bill introduced by Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, would allow employers to ask their workers for a proof of positive COVID-19 test if employees say they’re not able to work.
Finally, a bill introduced by Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, R-Madera, would give liability protection to businesses for injuries or deaths stemming from COVID-19, if they substantially complied with all state and local health regulations.
Several states have passed similar laws, with Republicans saying the protection could help businesses reopen. But Democrats and worker advocates across the country have opposed them, saying such protection would strip workers of their rights.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "More time off, paid childcare: How California lawmakers want to tackle COVID for workers."
