Young: The 2021 Legislative Season

Monday, November 1, 2021 | 0

The 2021 California legislative season ended on Oct. 10, the deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to act on bills.

Julius Young

How did the interests of California injured workers fare this year? In this year’s legislative battles over worker rights, who were the winners, and who lost?

Despite Democratic dominance in the California Assembly and California Senate — and a governor who pitches himself as a friend of labor — few pro-worker bills made it into law.

In a big disappointment for the California Applicants' Attorneys Association, Newsom vetoed AB 788, an anti-discrimination measure. I covered this in my Sept. 29 post. 

Disappointing firefighters, Newsom vetoed AB 872, which would have allowed certain California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection employees to draw one year of full salary in lieu of temporary disability.

And rejecting the efforts of farmworkers, Newsom vetoed AB 616, a measure to expand agricultural worker rights in union elections. 

Newsom also vetoed AB 1074, a bill aimed at protecting jobs of hospitality workers whose employers closed during the pandemic and then re-opened.

California workers’ comp bills that stalled in legislative committees in 2021 include the following:

• AB 1465, a bill that initially would have created a statewide medical provider network but later was reduced to a bill requiring a study.
• SB 213, a bill to create a presumption of industrial causation for health care workers, covering infectious diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, respiratory disease, cancer and musculoskeletal conditions.
• SB 284, a bill to create an industrial presumption for certain classes of safety workers and first responders who claim PTSD.
• AB 404, a bill requiring review of the medical-legal fee schedule every two years.
• SB 334, a skin cancer presumption for state park workers and game wardens.

So the bottom line is that CAAA and its allies had a very bleak year in the Legislature. And there was no glimmer that the governor has any particular interest in or inclination toward expanding the rights of California injured workers. But there was no significant erosion of workers’ comp rights, either.

A list of other bills affecting workers that were introduced but stalled in 2021 should include the following:

• AB 95 (expanded bereavement leave).
• AB 1179 (employer child care costs).
• AB 1041 (expanded family leave and paid sick leave).
• AB 1119 (create duty of employer to accommodate worker family responsibilities).
• AB 1192 (create a duty for large employers to report certain data on the workforce).
• SB 410 (bill to expedite Cal/OSHA standards).
• AB 995 (expanded sick leave).

Workers’ comp bills were not on this year’s California Chamber of Commerce Job Killer List, but many of the other bills listed above were. So while liberals and progressives dominate the California Legislature, the business community is clearly able to mount a robust effort to stop some of the more aggressive proposals from California progressives.

Which bills made it into law? Here is a list:

• SB 221 (requires health plans to provide timely access to mental health providers).
• AB 1561 (extends the exemption of certain jobs and professions from application of the “ABC” employment test set forth in Labor Code Section 2775).
• SB 606 (strengthens Cal/OSHA enforcement).
• AB 1511 (revised notice requirements for workers’ comp policy cancellations).
• AB 701 (regulates warehouse worker quotas).
• AB 1003 (makes specified amounts of wage theft punishable as grand theft).
• AB 654 (COVID-19 notice requirements by employers and the California Department of Public Health).
• SB 62 (prohibits piece-work compensation in the garment industry).

It appears that the most successful 2021 bills dealt with specific employer abuses. They include wage theft, problematic labor practices in the warehouse industry, failure of health plans such as Kaiser to offer timely mental health visits, etc.

It is unclear what the future will hold. But overall, the pattern seems to reflect that this governor is willing to plug holes in the safety net and deal with abuses that affect particular groups of workers. However, he may not be inclined to make major expansions in worker rights or entitlements and does not have a great interest in the details of the workers’ comp system.

Information about all bills mentioned in this post can be found here.

Julius Young is an applicants' attorney and a partner for the Boxer & Gerson law firm in Oakland. This column was reprinted with his permission from his Workers Comp Zone blog on the firm's website.