Many of the bills that have moved through policy committee are cause for concern for many of our members and we are working with other groups, such as the California Chamber of Commerce, to oppose these measures.
SB 287 (Hueso; D-San Diego) mandates installations of AEDs (defibrillators) in all new buildings with a max occupancy of 200 or more.
AB 359 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) is a costly employee retention mandate. It inappropriately alters the employment relationship and increases frivolous litigation by allowing a private right of action and by requiring any successor grocery employer to retain employees of the former grocery employer for 90 days and continue to offer continued employment unless the employees’ performance during the 90-day period was unsatisfactory. This bill is very similar to AB 350 from five years ago, in which the Commercial Real Estate Industry spent a lot of time and effort to defeat.
AB 567 (Gipson; D-Carson), dealing with change of ownership, specifies that the fact the change of ownership statement has been filed with the Board of Equalization (BOE) or that the BOE has issued a determination on change of ownership is not confidential. There is no valid reason to begin violating the fundamental principle of taxpayer confidentiality. More and more tax information that should remain confidential is indiscriminately made available to the public. The benefits to be derived from such disclosures are speculative at best, and do not warrant taking the risk of inaccuracies or other adverse consequences that may undermine public confidence in the tax system.
AB 1017 (Campos; D-San Jose) threatens employers with civil and criminal prosecution for failing to set forth in a verbal or written offer the minimum rate of pay for each job position and precludes employers from seeking relevant employment history when interviewing candidates.
The bill may limit job opportunities for those who are less qualified, will potentially reduce applicant wages, and expose employers to additional litigation.
SB 379 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara), dealing with general plan safety elements, creates an additional parallel process in order to incorporate adaptation and resiliency into the planning process. Because climate change, adaptation and science and policy are rapidly evolving, new terms must be clearly defined so there is no ambiguity about what is required.
