State Legislation Protecting Workers, Environment Makes It Past 'Job Killer' Smears
Republicans and their business buddies would like the rest of the country to believe California is a hotbed of odious laws and regulations. Their plans for the 2020 election cycle include labeling the Democratic party platform as a socialist plot to Californicate our mighty capitalist economy.
As is true with just about everything coming from the establishment right these days, the facts tell a different story. I am continually amazed at how the party of no-plans and faux plans whines about fake news. It’s psychological projection writ as large as can be.
One need look no further than the California legislature’s track record with so-called job killer bills to understand the real power wielded by business interests.
In 2018, not a single piece of legislation on the California Chamber of Commerce must-stop list was signed into law.
Democrats may have a supermajority in Sacramento, but big buck lobbyists are still have considerable veto power, even when the bills they oppose actually create jobs.
Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez is the one legislator with a track record of winning against the Chamber and their minions.
In an article at Capital and Main last year, she called out their hypocrisy:
How precisely these bills would kill jobs, and exactly how many would die, the California Chamber doesn’t specify. (No one from the organization responded to interview requests.) “They never come into the legislature with estimates of projected job losses” based on any research, Gonzalez Fletcher says. “They haven’t shown how any of the policies they’ve opposed have resulted in a single job loss.” Meanwhile, the Chamber stands behind policies that are known job killers, such as increased automation in the workplace.
Gonzalez Fletcher suggests that perhaps it’s time to change the list’s title. “If you want to call it the ‘Profit Reduction for the One Percent’ list, that’s fine,” she says. “Just be honest with your label.”
The deadline for moving new bills in this year’s legislature has passed. Four ‘job killer’ proposals made it through committees and await approval or reconciliation with the other legislative chamber. Three of those bills have Assm. Gonzalez listed as a sponsor. California Senate pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, Assembly member Todd Gloria are advocates for the remaining piece of legislation.
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Absent from this list of bills deemed dangerous by business interests is AB 5, a high profile effort to codify the California Supreme Court opinion in Dynamex. The ruling made it harder for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors.
It implemented a formula, called the ABC test, saying workers are employees if companies control what they do, if their tasks are central to a company’s core business, and if they don’t run independent businesses doing that work.
The ruling, while it was a victory for the plaintiffs, left a considerable amount of confusion about its scope.
A February article from the San Francisco Chronicle offered the possibility of AB 5 leaving some parts of the old status quo intact:
“We’re trying to codify what the Supreme Court said,” said state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, who introduced AB5 to do that, although its exact provisions won’t be set until later this month. “We want to ensure that workers aren’t left behind in this new gig economy, doing one side hustle after another.”
While the Dynamex decision dealt only with pay, saying that workers who pass the ABC test are entitled to minimum wage and overtime, Gonzalez wants to take it further with benefits such as unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, paid family leave, sick days and health insurance.
“All these things are important not only to workers but to the state of California, to ensure companies are contributing to a social safety net,” she said.
The Chamber of Commerce is hopeful for amendments removing some professions from the exemptions in the codification of the court's decision, even if so-called “gig economy” startups (read Uber/Lyft) get left out in the cold.
The thinking of the established corporations is that some statutory exemptions are better than nothing, given the unanimous decision of the State’s highest court’s interpretation of the Labor Code.
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The remaining legislative measures still alive are:
AB - 51 - Employment Discrimination: enforcement. (Gonzalez)
The use of mandatory arbitration agreements in employment--currently a requirement in 55% of private sector jobs-- creates an inherent power imbalance in employee-employer relationship. This bill seeks to ensure that such agreements are entered into voluntarily.
According to the California Labor Federation, a supporter of the legislation:
"forced arbitration of sexual harassment claims epitomizes all of the most harmful practices that have enabled widespread abuse to go undetected for decades. Workers are forced to sign away their rights in order to get hired. When they seek to report violations, they are denied the ability to go to court or file a claim with the Labor Commissioner. Instead, they are trapped in the employer’s handpicked arbitration system. The system is secret and confidential, protecting abusers from any public scrutiny. State agencies have no knowledge of repeat violations or arbitration decisions and there is no public record."
AB 1066 - Unemployment Insurance: trade disputes: eligibility for benefits. (Gonzalez)
Workers who go on strike due to a trade dispute would be eligible for benefits after a four week waiting period, subject to the same requirements and limitations as other workers applying for benefits, with the exception that the one week waiting period would be waived.
Providing benefits to striking workers will soften the impact of hardships on workers and their families, recognizing that those who earn the lowest wages are among the most vulnerable employees in the workplace and have the greatest need to exercise their right to strike for improved conditions.
SB-54/AB 1080 - California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. (Allen - Gonzalez)
These bills set goals to reduce waste from single-use packaging and the most problematic plastic disposable items, saving local governments millions of dollars in disposal costs and protecting the environment.
Ultimately this legislation addresses the fragmentation of waste plastic into smaller particles, known as microplastics. They concentrate toxic chemicals, contaminate food and drinking water sources, ranging from bottled water to table salt to fish and agricultural soils.
Manufacturers and retailers of single-use packaging and products will need to achieve a 75% reduction by 2030 of the waste generated from single-use packaging and products offered for sale or sold in the state through source reduction, recycling, or composting.
SB-1 - California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2019 (Atkins, Portantino, and Stern)
This bill is aimed squarely at the Trump administration’s degradation of key environmental and labor standards.
More than 34 different key clean air, clean water and endangered species standards have been weakened or eliminated at the federal level since 2017. Protections adopted under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act and the disclosure of toxic hazards in workplaces have been attacked via executive orders.
Implementation would be triggered by federal or congressional actions aimed at to weakening or rolling back environmental or workplace standards legally in effect on or before January 22, 2017. State agencies will maintain the original baseline federal standards by emergency regulation or through normal regulatory processes.
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These bills all appear to be common sense efforts in line with what I suspect most people in California would support. Keep your ears and eyes open. The Chamber’s job killer squad claims an 85% kill rate.
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Also...
https://twitter.com/bennydiego/status/1135955437482782720
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