New California Employment Law Updates

IMPORTANT COMPLIANCE ITEMS!!!!

Welcome back to work!  I wanted to send this information out intentionally on January 2nd as you open your email.  As I was educating myself on a few items of employment law this Christmas week, I felt strongly on educating my California small to mid-size businesses on what actions items need to be taken to ensure your business is compliant to the new law updates as of January 1st.  Below are the items in which action needs to be taken.  Remember, I am always available to help update your action items. Call me 714.851.1653 or email me at dawn@claritybusinessplans.com.  Here we go with the updates!

 New Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage Update All of California with Exception of San Diego County – January 1, 2018

• Employers with 25 employees or less is $10.50 per hour
• Employers with 26 employees or more is now $11.00 per hour

Starting July 1, 2018, the minimum wage in the City and County of Los Angeles will increase according to the following schedules;

• Employers with 25 employees or less will going to be $12.00 per hour
• Employers with 26 employees or more will be going to be $13.25.

The important point to remember about the wage rate increases is if the business owner knows they are going to hire the 26 person to their team, the business owner must pay the entire team the higher wage rate.  If the business owner goes below 26 associates, then the business owner can go back to the lower rate.

Additional information which is important is if an Orange County employee goes to work within LA County or LA City more than 2 hours a week they must be paid the higher rate starting in July 2018.  As the business owner you must be able to document hours inside of LA County or LA City.

Law 2810.5

This new statue is as the employer you must provide every employee with;

•  The legal name of the employer.
•  The other names the employer doing business as.
•  The employer’s legal address.
•  Wage information including overtime pay, straight time pay, and how the employee is paid.
•  The employer’s workers compensation information.
•  Sick paid leave calculation information.

I have provided the link below to the document which can be used to be distributed to every employee needed with all of the information above.

https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/lc_2810.5_notice.pdf

Exempt Classification Updates for January 1, 2018

Computer software employees whose compensation is at least $43.58 per hour, or, if paid on a salaried basis, at least $90,790.07 annually for full-time employment paid at least $7,565.85 a month.

Licensed physicians and surgeons whose compensation is at least $79.39 per hour are exempt from state overtime requirements.

Other Exempt classifications have also increased (Please see the duties to test for the exempt classification atdir.ca.gov/dlse/faqovertimeexemptions.htm) Business owner with 25 employees or less the new yearly salary is $43,680, and those with 26 employees or more the yearly salary is $45,760.  Remember to always pay the higher rate if it is known you will hire a 26th employee.  You can also decrease the pay when lowering the staffing back to 25 employees.

AB 168-Salary History

This new bill says the employer is no longer allowed to ask prior salary history of an applicant applying, interviewing, or recruiting for a job with your business. Also, upon request from the applicant you must provide a pay scale for the position in which they are applying for.

Action items which business owners should address before January 1, 2018 are;

• Revise application forms or HRIS systems which ask about salary history.
• Train managers, and recruiters in reminding them they cannot ask about the candidate’s salary history during the recruiting process.

Harassment Training and Transgender Rights

If a business owner who employee 50 or more employees must have all managers and supervisors complete California’s 2 hour training.  All new managers or supervisors who join your business must be certified within 2 weeks of hire. This training must be reviewed and a recertification must be completed every two years.

California is also requiring a new Transgender poster be posted within the work place.  The website to download the poster is https://is.gd/rhNOWx.

If you have more than 5% employees who speak a language other than English, you must post in all languages represented within your business place.

AB -1556 Gender Neutral Language

This new bill is changing all language within the workplace to gender neutral language. Business owners will no longer be able to use the pronoun he or she. All language moving forward must be gender neutral by using the words such as candidate or employee.

Action items for business owners include;

• Revising handbooks.

SB -179 Gender ID

This bill is a change in gender ID.  This is for business owners to change their gender options to the following three choices;

• Male
• Female
• Non-Binary

The action item for business owners is to revise all of their forms to the three gender options by September 1, 2018.

AB 1008-Ban the Box (This one is tricky, so I included all of the information!)

This statue is called “Ban the Box”.  This statue is for all business owners who have 5 or more employees.  The business owner cannot ask applicants about criminal history until a conditional job offer is extended to the candidate.

Restrictions: Inquiries

Under the proposed law, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to do any of the following before a conditional offer of employment is extended:

• Include on any application for employment any question that seeks the disclosure of an applicant’s conviction history (including certain pending arrests); or
• Inquire into or consider the conviction history of an applicant.

Restrictions: Consideration of Information

The bill also makes it an unlawful employment practice for employers to consider, distribute, or disseminate information about any of the following while conducting a criminal check in connection with an application for employment:

• Arrests that are not followed by a conviction, except when an individual is out on bail or his or her own recognizance pending trial (i.e., stale arrests);
• A referral to or participation in a pretrial or post-trial diversion program;
• Convictions that have been sealed, dismissed, expunged, or statutorily eradicated pursuant to law.

The bill makes clear that these prohibitions should not be construed to prevent an employer from conducting a background checks that do not conflict with these three requirements, so long as they are done in accordance with the new timing and other requirements and restrictions. For example, employers are not prohibited from considering convictions that are unsealed or not dismissed.

Pre-Adverse/Adverse Action Process

The law sets up a pre-adverse and adverse action process that is similar to the process required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, with some important distinctions.

The Individual Assessment: Does the conviction history have a relationship with the duties of the job?

An employer that is considering denying an applicant a position of employment, based in whole or in part on the applicant’s conviction history, must assess whether the applicant’s conviction history has a direct and adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job that justify denying the applicant the position.  In making the assessment, the employer must consider the following three factors:

• The nature and gravity of the offense or conduct;
• The time that has passed since the offense or conduct and completion of the sentence; and the nature of the job held or sought.

The California law confusingly calls this process an “individualized assessment” (a term that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) uses to describe the analysis of any information provided by the individual in response to a pre-adverse action letter), rather than a “targeted screen” (the term the EEOC uses to describe the consideration of these three factors before deciding whether to send a pre-adverse action letter). The good news for employers is that if you are following the EEOC’s Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records, then you are already complying with this requirement. The law also states that an employer may, but is not required to, commit the results of this individualized assessment to writing.

Pre-Adverse Action Letter Requirements

If, based on the initial assessment, the employer makes a preliminary decision to potentially disqualify the applicant from employment based on his or her conviction history; the employer must notify the applicant of this preliminary decision in writing. The notification/pre-adverse action letter (PAAL) must contain all of the following:

• Notice of the disqualifying conviction or convictions that are the basis for the preliminary decision to rescind the offer.

The employer is not required to justify or explain its reason or the basis for the preliminary disqualification decision, but may do so if it chooses to. (The employer must specify/identify the conviction, as mentioned above.)

• A copy of the conviction history report, if any.
• An explanation of the applicant’s right to respond to the notice of the employer’s preliminary decision before the decision becomes final and the deadline by which to respond.
• This explanation must inform the applicant that his or her response may include a submission of evidence challenging the accuracy of the conviction history report on which the offer rescission is based and/or evidence of rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances.

Pre-Decision Response Time

After sending a pre-adverse action letter, the employer must give the applicant at least five business days to respond to the notice/PAAL before making a final decision. This requirement mirrors the most commonly-used FCRA reasonable waiting period. If, within the five business days, the applicant notifies the employer in writing that he or she disputes the accuracy of the conviction history report and that he or she is taking specific steps to obtain evidence supporting that assertion, then the applicant has five additional business days to respond to the notice/PAAL. This additional time period is above that required under federal law. The employer must consider information submitted by the applicant before making a final decision.

Notification Requirements

If an employer makes a final decision to deny an application based in whole or in part on the applicant’s conviction history, the employer must notify the applicant in writing of the following:

• The final denial or disqualification.
• The employer may, but is not required to, justify or explain the employer’s reasoning for making the final denial or disqualification.
• Any existing procedure the employer has for the applicant to challenge the decision or request reconsideration.
• The right to file a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Statue AB 450 Immigration Enforcement

This statue to how to protect your business from Immigration and Customs Enforcement otherwise known as ICE, these are your rights as the business owner if ICE tries to come into your building;

•  ICE must have a warrant to access, review, or obtain any of your records.
•  I-9 forms can be audited but ICE must give the business a 72 hour notice to get their records in place.

Action Item:  To ensure your HR, administrative staff, and managers understand their rights before ICE can enforce any immigration procedures.

Victims of Domestic Violence Postings

Businesses with 25 or more employees must provide written notice to their employees of their rights if they are victims of domestic violence, or sexual assault.  Employees are protected for time off for medical care or legal proceedings.  I have provided the form to download and post or place in your new hires documentation when notifying the employee of their rights.

https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Victims_of_Domestic_Violence_Leave_Notice.pdf

New I-9 Forms

Ensure all of your business locations are using the new I-9 form with Form I-9 07/17/17 Non the left hand corner of the document.  Failure to use the newest form could result in fines up to $2,600 per instance. Below, I have included the newest form for your document files.

https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-9-paper-version.pdf

SB- 258-Work Place Safety

This bill states business owners must have all janitorial cleaning supplies placed in their MSDS books and readily available for employees to view.  These MSDS sheets are available online by placing the product name and MSDS sheet.

AB-44 Medical Treatment: Terrorist Attacks: Workplace Violence

This bill requires business owners to provide immediate support from a nurse case manager to employees injured in the course of employment by an act of domestic terrorism, as defined, would require employer-appointed nurse case managers to assist claimants to obtain medically necessary medical treatments would require a business owner to provide a prescribed notice to employees.

Remember to update all of California state postings!

Below is the link which will take you to all of the postings which need to be posted at your place of work.  Simply follow the links and print them out.  Here is the link:  https://www.dir.ca.gov/wpnodb.html

Do not feel over whelmed.  I always say to eat the entire elephant it must be one bite at a time. Complete one item at a time and in no time all the items below will be completed.  Please let us know if Clarity HR Solutions can help!

Clarity’s human resource solutions are tailored based on individual client needs that are designed to deliver day-to-day efficiencies as well as long-term strategic benefit through improved HR management.

Our services can be delivered independently or as integrated packages to give clients the flexibility and expertise they need, when they need it.

With Clarity Human Resources consulting the small to mid-size business owner can:

• Benefit from expertise and experience of a HR professional.
• Receive HR advice, tips, tools and best practices that work.
• Only pay for the time or services you use.
• Receive the most flexible solution to fit your needs and budget.
• Stay focused on your core business.
• Obtain professional advice and guidance of tough HR issues.