AB 2496: Janitorial employees: employment status: burden of proof.

(1)Existing law creates a rebuttable presumption that a worker performing services for which a license is required under specified statutes, is an employee rather than an independent contractor. Existing law provides specified criteria to determine whether the worker is an employee or an independent contractor.

Existing law requires property service employers to register with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and to provide, among other things, recordkeeping and training for their employees, as specified.

This bill would provide that a property service employer would be subject to the rebuttable presumption provisions that its workers are employees rather than independent contractors.

(2)Existing law requires employers to withhold tax and make contribution amounts with respect to unemployment insurance, disability insurance, employee training funding, and personal income tax from the wages paid to their employees. Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires that the determination of the employer-employee relationship be made pursuant to common law principles. Existing law defines employee for those purposes to include, among other individuals, an individual who is the employee of a person who holds a contractors license or who is required to obtain a contractors license, as specified.

This bill would also define the term employee for purposes of those provisions to additionally include the employee of a person who holds a registration as a property service employer or a person who is required to hold that registration.

Because this bill would expand the categories of people who would receive benefits from, and deposit additional moneys, into the Unemployment Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.