Thanks to a monumental, years-long effort from healthcare workers and their unions, over 400,000 workers at various healthcare facilities across California will see significant wage increases as early as July 2024. Under Senate Bill (“SB”) 525, the minimum wage for workers who provide direct patient care or support services at large hospitals and dialysis clinics will be raised to $23 in 2024, $24 in 2025, and $25 in 2026. The minimum wage for another group of workers at smaller healthcare facilities will move to $21 in 2024, $23 in 2026, and $25 in 2028. There are separate timelines for workers at community clinics and “financially distressed” healthcare institutions, but in sum, the bill requires progressive minimum wage increases for all covered healthcare workers over the next few years.

The legislature substantially increased the amount of paid sick leave required by California law. The new law (which takes effect on January 1, 2024) preserves the existing accrual rate under California’s paid sick leave law (one hour accrued for every 30 hours worked). However, employers may use a different accrual method as long as eligible employees accrue (a) no less than 24 hours (or 3 days) of paid sick leave by the end of their 120th day of employment, or (b) no less than 40 hours (or 5 days) of paid sick leave by the end of their 200th day of employment.

Senate Bill 150 (“SB 150”) aims to ensure that federal funding received through the federal Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (often referred to as the Infrastructure Bill), Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS and Science Act is allocated to regional training partnerships and used to promote community benefits.

For the first time ever, California employers with 5 or more employees must provide employees, who have worked for at least 30 days, with 5 days of reproductive loss leave starting January 1, 2024. “Reproductive loss” includes a miscarriage, failed surrogacy, stillbirth, unsuccessful “assisted reproduction” (such as artificial insemination or embryo transfer) or failed adoption. If an employee suffers more than one reproductive loss in a 12-month period, the employer need not grant more than 20 days of leave within 12 months.

Under Assembly Bill 1228, the minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees will increase to $20 per hour starting April 1, 2024. The bill also establishes a Fast Food Council within the California Department of Industrial Relations, which is empowered to establish annual minimum wage increases of up to 3.5%, with certain limitations, starting on January 1, 2025. The Fast Food Council also has the authority to establish minimum standards on working hours and other working conditions to maintain the health and safety of fast food restaurant employees through January 1, 2029. Local governments are not allowed to enact or enforce any laws setting wages and salaries for fast food restaurant employees during this time.

Assembly Bill 800 becomes effective in California on August 1, 2024. The bill establishes the week including April 28 as Workplace Readiness Week, which shall be a part of Labor History Month in May each year. During this week, all public high schools, including charter schools, will be required to provide students in grades 11 and 12 with information on workers’ rights, including laws on child labor, wage and hour protections, worker safety, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, paid family leave, state disability insurance, the California Family Rights Act, and the prohibition against misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Schools will also be required to educate these students on their right to organize a union in the workplace, prohibitions against retaliation, and the labor movement’s role in winning labor protections for workers. Furthermore, schools must provide students with an introduction to state-approved apprenticeship programs as an alternative career path.

In 2013, the legislature adopted Senate Bill 54 (“SB 54”), which required oil refineries to hire construction contractors that would commit to employing a “skilled and trained workforce,” as defined by the statute, and to hiring subcontractors that would also commit to employing a skilled and trained workforce.

On October 7, 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 808 (“SB 808”) into law, which amends the California Health and Safety Code to require the California State University (“CSU”) Chancellor’s Office and each of the CSU system’s 23 campuses to make certain annual disclosures about sexual harassment reports on campus. Specifically, the system will be required to disclose the number of sexual harassment reports they receive each year, how many of those reports resulted in investigations, how long it took the investigations to commence and conclude, and how many investigations triggered hearings and appeals. These annual reports must be posted on the system website for the public to access.

On July 10, 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 132 (“SB 132”). SB 132 extends California’s $330 million Film and Television Tax Credit program by five years. An important change in the law allows production companies receiving the tax credit to submit for a refund if the credit exceeds the company’s state tax liability.

Under existing law, California employers may seek a restraining order when one or more of their employees have suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence connected to the workplace. Now, Senate Bill 428 (“SB 428”) enables employers to seek harassment-related restraining orders as well.

For decades, California’s farmworkers could only gain union recognition through on-site elections. Last year, Governor Newsom signed a law allowing farmworkers to form a union through mail-in ballot elections or through card-check agreements. But he did so on the condition that the United Farm Workers and California Labor Federation agree to roll back the mail-in ballot option.

California law already says that noncompete agreements in an employment contract are void. But some employers put noncompetes in their contracts anyway. Employers know that a noncompete agreement might coax workers to stay in their jobs—even though it has no legal effect. It’s a misleading and unfair way to do business.

When is the action of one employee protected, concerted activity? The National Labor Relations Board answered this question in Miller Plastic Products, Inc. 372 NLRB No. 134 (Aug. 25, 2023) by returning to the totality of the circumstances test for determining whether an employee acting on their own is engaged in protected, concerted activity.

ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 138 (Aug. 25, 2023) arises out of bargaining a successor collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between ExxonMobil (“Exxon”) and the Independent Laboratory Employees Union.  Prior to the start of negotiations, Exxon subcontracted out bargaining unit work, changed the process for approval of paid time off (“PTO”) requests for union-represented employees, offered 8 weeks of paid parental leave to all non-union employees, and unilaterally changed performance evaluation methods for union-represented employees.  The Union filed unfair labor practices alleging numerous violations, including that Exxon engaged in overall bad faith bargaining.

The Board recently issued a decision in Intertape Polymer Corp., 372 NLRB No. 133 (2023) clarifying what needs to be proven to show that an employee was disciplined on account of union or protected concerted activity.

On August 26, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued American Federation for Children, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 137 (2023) restoring protections for employees who show support for nonemployees, including unpaid interns working alongside them.

In Hood River Distillers, 372 NLRB No. 126 (2023) the National Labor Relations Board retroactively applied a prior, more union-friendly standard for dues check off provisions.

On August 26, 2023, the NLRB issued Wendt Corporation overruling Raytheon Network Centric Systems, in which the Trump Board broke with decades of established precedent by drastically reinterpreting the rule established by the Supreme Court in NLRB v. Katz. Four days later, the NLRB announced Technocap LLC, 372 NLRB No. 136, which overrules the aspects of Raytheon that Wendt did not address.  The NLRB’s restoration of the Katz rule eliminates a major employer-friendly loophole and represents a significant victory for organized labor.

Breaking news: two major developments last week will reshape the legal processes for organizing a union in the private sector.

On August 25, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board issued a landmark decision that promises to speed organizing and deter employers from committing unfair labor practices once a union demands recognition.

The Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), California Labor Code §§ 2698-2699, allows employees to sue employers for wage and hour violations and recover monetary penalties for those violations. Employees may bring PAGA claims for violations of their own wage-and-hour rights and on behalf of other employees. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the ability to bring such claims in Viking River Cruises. In Viking River Cruises, the high court held that an employer and employee could waive the employee’s right to bring PAGA claims to court, and instead, arbitrate them. The question of whether bringing wage and hour claims in arbitration, as compared to in court, favors workers or only employers remains an ongoing hot-button issue.