The following are some of the newly enacted California employment laws, which have become effective this year:
Statute of Limitations for Hate Crimes
Code of Civil Procedure Sections 52 and 338 have been amended to extend the statute of limitations for civil actions based on hate crimes from one year to three years. This change does not directly apply to employment claims, but will impact businesses throughout the State.
Unruh Act: Sexual Orientation and Marital Status
The Unruh Civil Rights Act has been "clarified" by new legislation to expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status or sexual orientation. This law, Civil Code sections 51, et seq. prohibits business establishments from discriminating on the basis of these and other categories protected by the law.
Workplace Violence Safety Act
This law has been amended to ease the process of an employer's seeking a restraining order or injunction against someone posing a threat to the workplace, by requiring law enforcement officers who respond to the scene of reported unlawful violence to provide the perpetrator with verbal notice of a workplace protective order that has been issued by a court. The changes may be found in Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 527.8, Family Code Sec. 6383 and Welfare and Institutions Code Sec. 15657.03.
Payment of Wages on Separation of Employment
An employer is now permitted to pay final wages through direct deposit if the employee already receives his or her paycheck in that manner. See Labor Code sections 213 and 515.5.
Employee Paychecks
California Labor Code Sec. 226 previously required employers to furnish employees with an accurate itemized paycheck that includes, among other things, the employee's name and social security number. Effective immediately as an emergency measure last summer, due to concern about identify theft in the event a paycheck was lost or stolen, the legislature amended that law to preclude employers from including an employee's social security number on paychecks, and required that by no later than January 1, 2008,employers include on an itemized wage statement no more than the last four digits of an employee's social security number or an existing employee identification number (other than the employee's social security number).
Statute of Limitations for Certain Fair Employment and Housing Violations
The one year statute of limitations for filing a claim under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, if the violation occurred when the employee was under the age of 18, has been extended to one year after the employee's 18th birthday.
Meal Periods in the Motion Picture Industry
Employees in the motion picture and broadcasting industries who are covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement have been exempted from the normal requirement that employers provide them with specified unpaid meal periods under Labor Code Sec.512.
This article cannot refer to every employment-related law taking effect on January 1, 2006. Additional information may be obtained through the official California legislative information website at www.leginfo.ca.gov.
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