Assembly Standing Committee on Labor and Employment

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee hearing. Just some quick announcements. For each bill, we will take two main witnesses in support and two main witnesses in opposition. Each primary witness will get up to two minutes each.

For additional public comment, we ask that you state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill. To establish quorum, Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Okay, we have a quorum. I will—we're going to go out of order to give Ms. Shabel time to arrive, so I will be presenting bill item number 2 and 3.

Whenever you're ready, Madam Chair. You may begin.

Thank you, Members, for the opportunity to present AB 36 to today. AB 1136 will give workers who have been wrongfully detained and deported by ICE a necessary and humane grace period to organize their affairs and return to their jobs without putting employers at either legal or financial risk.

The Bill provides workers with five unpaid days to attend to immigration related matters or up to 12 months of unpaid leave in the case of detainment or deportation. In response to businesses—business—concerns, I have accepted an amendment that allows employers to require workers to exhaust their, their other forms of leave before using the five days.

The Bill also requires employees to be offered their same position back once they have proved their legal status. The language in AB 1136 dates back two decades to when it was first negotiated by Unite HERE Local 11, under the leadership of Senator Durazo.

Most major hotels and casinos in the U.S. have a version of this bill's language in their collective bargaining agreements, including President Donald Trump's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. I would also like to note that I have taken substantial amendments to address nearly every concern of the groups listed up as in opposition, including adding a sunset date.

Yet unfortunately, they remain opposed to this commonsense measure. And with that, I would like to close.

Thank you. Now, do we have any witnesses in support of your Bill? Primary witnesses? Oh, members of the public. All right. For members in public in support of the Bill, please state your organization position, please.

Thank you. Elmer Lizardi here on behalf of the California Federation of Labor Unions, in support.

Mr. Chair and Members, Brian...on behalf of SEIU California in support.

Now, do we have any witnesses, primary witness opposition? Please come up. If our witnesses.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Members. Dorothy Johnson, Behavior Association of California School Administrators. Regrettably, we are still concerned deeply with this Bill. Will our school community see firsthand the chaos being created by the Federal Administration? We believe this Bill is crafted more for the private industry than our public education sector.

We have a robust rehire system that's a 39 month allowance based on seniority. We had hoped that that would be placed in consideration as part of the amendments. Unfortunately, they were not, and therefore, we must remain respectfully opposed. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Further witnesses in opposition please.

Ashley Hoffman, opposed unless amended. Yes, I really appreciate all the amendments that have been taken. I know my members are still just a little bit concerned about the length of the rehiring period, but again, really appreciate the author taking the rest of our amendments. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Matthew...on the Western Growers Association. We all still respectfully oppose unless amended to the Bill. Thanks.

Thank you. Now, I'll bring back to Committee. Questions, comments for members, or motions? You have a question?

I'm happy to move the Bill. Happy to move the Bill. I want to thank the author for all of her work to work diligently to make sure that, you know, you're addressing concerns as best as possible, but fundamentally, there's things that you're supposed to—lines in the sand that you just can't cross.

And I, you know, would be stating the obvious to note that, you know, may not even it's in this important Bill probably like, you know, in perpetuity. I know this is, you know, kind of sunset in 2029, but it's particularly acute because of what's thrust on our communities and our workers right now.

You know, this probably never would have seen the need for a bill.

While immigration related issues do happen from time to time, independent of the Administration that we're in right now, certainly the heightened activity right now is causing this false choice between needing to be able to take care of your affairs and make sure that you are being a good worker, a diligent worker, and being true to the work and everything.

So, I think it's a fair balance on principle and I know you've taken it as far as you can to try to make it workable. I'm happy to support the Bill today.

All right. I'll take that motion. I'll second it. I do think it's more than reasonable bill to allow people to sort their affairs, especially the amendments you've taken. Granted, most people kidnapped and sent to gulags faster than their families can even find them. So, I mean, this is, I think more than reasonable, frankly, right now.

So, I will of course be supporting it. Madam Secretary, could you please call the roll on this Bill?

[Roll Call]

Sorry, sorry. I want to allow the author to close.

I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

All right. Madam Secretary please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

All right, we'll hold the roll open. Madam Chair, are you going to present the second bill? Okay, go ahead when you're ready.

Thank you, Members. I am pleased to present AB 1514, our Labor Committee Bill that was amended in the Senate to be our cleanup bill for AB 5. AB 1514 extends the sunset on the license manicurists' exemption for three years so that stakeholders have adequate time to come up with regulatory framework for the industry.

The extension also includes important reporting requirements to the Legislature by the EDD and the Division of Labor standards enforcements regarding manicurists' misclassification claims and other violations of the Labor Code. The Bill also extends the commercial fisherman exemption under AB 5 by 5 years to maintain continuity in this industry.

This extension continues critical reporting requirements from the EDD to the Legislature on unemployment claims for these workers. I don't have any witnesses with me today and I respectfully enough for an aye vote at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Do we have any witnesses? Do we have any Members of the public which testify in support of the Bill? Please come forward. Any members of the public who wish to testify against the Bill, please come forward. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the Committee for any questions or comments. All right.

The bill's been properly moved and I will second it. I'll just say that thank you for your work on this. You know, I will remain want to work with you about the manicurist issue since this is a very API heavy—API women—heavy industry that they've been trying to get to those rights a very long time.

But I understand we need more time to make the happen. So, happy to work together in the future about it. Would you like to close?

Respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Okay. Madam Secretary, please call the roll on this bill.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. We will take a minute until we wait for Assemblymember Schiavo to present her bill. It.

This Committee is going to take a 10-minute recess.

Thank you. We are now reconvening Labor and Employment. Thank you, Assemblymember Ward, for presenting item number one, AB 406 for Assemblymember Schiavo.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members of the Committee. I'm pleased to be able to present AB 406 on behalf of Assemblymember Schiavo.

The Bill will provide clarifying technical changes for AB...which the Bill sheltered last year. AB 2499 allows family victims, family members of victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and other violence to take unpaid time off to address safety concerns or to support the family.

This Bill, AB 406, further...by adding timelines that clearly delineate enforcement authority between the Civil Rights Department and the Labor Commissioner's Office. It adds sunset dates to the Labor Code sections and aligns Labor Code sections with the new government code section to correct permitted uses of paid sick leave.

These technical fixes will help survivors of crime and their families take the time that they need to heal without fear or concern over losing their job. With that, I would respectfully request your aye vote.

Do we have any witnesses in support?

None.

Seeing none. Do we have any witnesses in opposition? Seeing none. Would you like to close?

Respectfully request your aye vote.

Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

We have sufficient votes. We're going to place it on hold for—to further members to add. Oh, yeah.

Item number two, AB 1136. We currently have three votes.

[Roll Call]

I will place this back on hold. Item number three, AB 1514. We currently have four votes.

[Roll Call]

I will place this back on hold.

We'll keep the roll open for absent members. Thank you.

So, we'll give it another five.

Item number one, AB 406. The current vote is four to zero.

[Roll Call]

Item number two, AB 1136. Current vote is four to zero.

[Roll Call]

Item number three, AB 1514. Current vote is five to zero.

[Roll Call]

The bills are out. This concludes our hearing today.

Thank you. Thank you.