AB 3081: Employment: sexual harassment.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits various actions as unlawful employment practices and makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency, apprenticeship training program, or any training program leading to employment, to engage in harassment of an employee or other specified person. FEHA also makes harassment of those persons by an employee, other than an agent or supervisor, unlawful if the entity, or its agents or supervisors, knows or should have known of this conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. Under FEHA, an employer may also be responsible for the acts of nonemployees, with respect to sexual harassment of employees and other specified persons, if the employer, or its agents or supervisors, knows or should have known of the conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. FEHA defines harassment for these purposes to include sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

Existing law also requires a client employer, as defined, to share with a labor contractor, as defined, all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all workers supplied by that labor contractor for the payment of wages and the failure to obtain valid workers compensation coverage.

This bill would require a client employer to share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for harassment for all workers supplied by that labor contractor.

Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking for taking time off work to obtain specified relief or because of the employees status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, if the victim provides notice to the employer of the status or the employer has actual knowledge of the status. Existing law authorizes an employee to file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for a violation of these prohibitions or that reasonable accommodations requirement within one year from the date of occurrence of the violation. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to refuse to rehire, promote, or restore an employee who has been determined to be so eligible by a grievance procedure or legal hearing.

This bill would also prohibit an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee because of the employees status as a victim of sexual harassment, as defined by FEHA. The bill would establish a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation based on the employees status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, or stalking if an employer takes specific actions within 30 days following the date that the victim provides notice to the employer or the employer has actual knowledge of the status. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.