Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law is Different 2022 Edition

©2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP  www.seyfarth.com 2022 Cal-Peculiarities | 13 Preface to the 2022 Edition New Legislation A 19th century jurist famously observed that no one’s “life, liberty or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.” To many employers, that thought comes to mind whenever the State Assembly and Senate convene in Sacramento. And with good reason. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown noted, as he left office in January 2019: “The Democratic constituencies want more money and more laws. I take a different view. We have too many damn laws. The coercive power of the state should be invoked sparingly. They tell me almost all of the bills that I have vetoed have been reintroduced.” Governor Brown’s more progressive successor, instead of heeding the call for caution, doubled down. Governor Gavin Newsom began his tenure by proclaiming: “California has always helped write America’s future. … The country is watching us. … The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment.” California legislators responded to Governor Newsom’s call. They re-passed bills that Governor Brown had vetoed, and they passed still more bills reflecting further initiatives unfriendly to business interests. During 2020 and 2021, however, the Legislature focused on pressing pandemic-related issues. Below we report some highlights of what the Governor and Legislature would count among their 2021 accomplishments in employment law. The highlights appear in the same order in which their subject matters appear in the course of this volume. All enactments have been effective January 1, 2022, unless otherwise noted. New Laws  Wage theft. Intentional wage theft—including gratuities “in an amount greater than nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) from any one employee, or two thousand three hundred fifty dollars ($2,350) in the aggregate”—is now considered grand theft punishable as a misdemeanor or felony with jail time. (See § 1.5.1.)  Parents-in-law leave. The CFRA now allows leave taken to care for seriously ill parents-in-law. (See § 2.3.)  COVID SPSL extension: “A new law enacted in 2022 retroactively extended COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (SPSL) obligations back to January 1, 2021, for employers with over 25 employers. With the old law expiring on September 30, 2021, the new law left a gap in coverage for the last quarter of 2021.”  PAGA janitorial CBA exception. There is now a limited exception from PAGA for specific janitorial employees performing work under a collective bargaining agreement. (See § 5.15.2)  More restrictions on settlement agreements. For settlement agreements entered into on or after January 1, 2022, the “Silence No More Act” extends the prohibition on confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements to all forms of workplace discrimination—not just discrimination based on sex— and requires that any provision that restricts disclosure of workplace conditions to carve out disclosure of unlawful acts. (See § 6.5.13.)