The following bills await action by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Costly Workplace Mandates:
AB 482 (Mendoza; D-Norwalk) Expanded Employer Liability. Increases exposure to liability for hiring decisions by unduly restricting the ability of employers to base employment decisions on the evaluation of all legally available information, including consumer credit reports.
AB 2187 (Arambula; I-Fresno) Expanded Employer Liability. Creates a significant disincentive to locate jobs and operations in California by potentially criminalizing almost any legitimate wage dispute with a terminated employee that takes longer than 90 days to resolve.
SB 145 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord) Workers’ Compensation Apportionment. Erodes recent workers’ compensation reforms and leads to higher premiums for California employers by undercutting fair and reasonable provisions in current law that protect an employer from paying for disability that was not caused by a workplace accident.
SB 1474 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Increased Agricultural Costs. Designed to increase union representation of agricultural employees even when it is against the will of employees by undermining the process that now guarantees, through secret-ballot elections, a fair vote and the expression of agricultural employees’ true sentiments on the selection of a collective bargaining representative. This act will hurt California’s businesses by driving up costs, making employers less competitive in a global market.
Economic Development Barriers:
AB 1405 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Climate Change Tax Increase. Increases costs and discourages job growth by granting the Air Resources Board broad authority to implement unlimited fees and taxes with little or no oversight.
SB 967 (Correa; D-Santa Ana) Restricts Business Options. Limits choice and drives up prices for consumers and for state and local government by providing a preference to bidders who commit that 90 percent of the work will be performed by California employees.
SB 1272 (Wolk; D-Davis) Discourages Investment. Creates uncertainty for California employers making long-term investment decisions by requiring all future-enacted investment incentives to sunset after seven years.
Inflated Liability Costs:
AB 1680 (Saldaña; D-San Diego) Interferes with Contractual Agreements. Burdens businesses with unnecessary litigation costs and slows down resolution of disputes by presumptively invalidating arbitration agreements in an otherwise voluntary contract if the underlying claim involves a possible hate crime.
AB 2773 (Swanson; D-Alameda) Undermines Judicial Discretion. Unreasonably increases business litigation costs by limiting judicial discretion to reduce or deny exorbitant legal fees in fair employment and housing cases.Unrestrained Government Control:
AB 1602 (John A. Pérez; D-Los Angeles) Unrestrained Government Control. AB 1602, together with SB 900, prematurely creates overly broad and expansive governance and guidelines without oversight for the state health benefit exchange, which could lead to unnecessary cost increases and limited choice for employers.
SB 900 (Alquist; D-Santa Clara) Unrestrained Government Control. SB 900, together with AB 1602, prematurely creates overly broad and expansive governance and guidelines without oversight for the state health benefit exchange, which could lead to unnecessary cost increases and limited choice for employers.
Vetoed by the Governor on July 28 was:
SB 1121 (Florez; D-Shafter) Harms California Farms and Farm Workers. Places farms at a competitive disadvantage, increases cost of doing business for California farmers, and reduces available resources to invest in workers and farms by removing overtime exemption for agricultural employees.
Action Needed:
The CalChamber is urging members to contact the Governor and ask him to veto the "job killer" bills listed above.
Sample letters are available at www.calchambervotes.com.