Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

THERE are already compre­hensive laws relating to minimum wage, overtime pay, and other working conditions in the work­place. Governor Jerry Brown has just signed into law several bills that would provide more protec­tions for California’s workers. These laws are the following:

 

Employers pay additional pen­alties for willful misclassification of independent contractors

This law prohibits willful mis­classification of workers as in­dependent contractors. Willful misclassification is defined as “avoiding employee status for an individual by voluntarily and knowingly misclassifying that individual as an independent contractor.” The law authorizes a worker to file a complaint and request the Labor Commissioner to make a finding that the employer has misclassified the worker as an inde­pendent contractor and thus violated the law. If an employee has been misclassi­fied as an indepen­dent contractor, the employer could be liable for the following:

1) Penalties of $5,000 to $15,000 for the first misclassifi­cation and penalties of $10,000 to $25,000 for repeat violators;

2) Mandatory posting of a no­tice that the employer has violat­ed the law on an Internet website or in view of the public including an invitation for other potentially misclassified persons to contact the Labor and Workforce De­velopment Agency for an entire year; and

3) Other civil and liquidated damages

This law also provides that a person (such as financial, ac­counting or human resources professionals) who knowingly advises an employer to treat an individual as an independent contractor to avoid employee status for the individual shall be jointly and severally liable with the employer if the individual is not found to be an independent contractor.

Employers cannot use credit reports for employment purpos­es.

This law prohibits an em­ployer or prospective employer, with the exception of certain fi­nancial institutions, from obtain­ing a consumer credit report, for employment purposes unless the position of the person for whom the report is sought is

(1) a position in the state De­partment of Justice

(2) a managerial position as defined by law

(3) that of a sworn peace of­ficer or other law enforcement position

(4) a position for which the in­formation contained in the report is required by law to be disclosed or obtained

(5) a position that involves reg­ular access to specified personal information for any purpose oth­er than the routine solicitation

and processing of credit card applications in a retail establish­ment

(6) a position in which the person is or would be a named signatory on the employer’s bank or credit card account, or autho­rized to

transfer money or enter into financial contracts on the employer’s behalf

(7) a position that involves access to confidential or propri­etary information

(8) a position that involves reg­ular access to $10,000 or more of cash

This law also requires written notice informing the person for whom a consumer credit report is sought for employment pur­poses to

also inform the person of the specific reason for obtain­ing the report.

Employers cannot refuse to maintain and pay for health cov­erage for maternity leave

This recently signed law would prohibit an employer from refus­ing to maintain and pay for con­tinuing coverage under a group health plan for an employee who takes a pregnancy disability leave for up to 4 months. There already exists a law that prohib­its employment discrimination based on sex or disability. How­ever, pregnant employees on pregnancy disability leave were entitled only to the same ben­efits provided by an employer to employees on other types of dis­ability leaves and many employ­ers limit the continuation of such coverage to 12 weeks.

With the passage of this law, California employers must ex­tend the continuation period to four months for pregnancy dis­ability leaves. As specified in the law, group health benefits must be continued on the same terms and conditions as if the employ­ee continued actively reporting to work. If the employee fails to return from pregnancy disability leave, the employer may recoup from the employee the pre­miums the employer paid to continue the employee’s coverage during the leave, un­less the reason the employee did not re­turn is because of a continuing disability or because the employee took a separate protected leave (e.g. maternity leave) under the FMLA/CFRA.

Next week, we will discuss other new laws pertaining to minimum wage and wage theft.

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