(1) Existing law requires the Controller to operate a uniform state payroll system for all state agencies, except the California Exposition and State Fair and the University of California, in conformance with the accounting system for all state agencies supervised by the Department of Finance.
Existing law, on and after January 1, 2010, requires that payments to employees made through the Uniform State Payroll System for master payroll paid on June 30 of each year be issue dated on July 1, provided that employees, in any event, be paid promptly. Existing law requires that these payments be considered payables incurred in the fiscal year in which the payment is issue dated for purposes of the accounting system for the state by the Department of Finance, except as specified.
This bill would repeal these provisions described above that require that payments to employees paid on June 30 of each year be issue dated July 1st, and would make conforming changes.
(2) Existing law creates the Department of Human Resources, which succeeds to, and is vested with, all of the powers and duties exercised and performed by the Department of Personnel Administration. Existing law specifically grants the department the powers, duties, and authority necessary to operate the state civil service system in accordance with Article VII of the California Constitution, the Government Code, the merit principle, and applicable rules duly adopted by the State Personnel Board.
Existing law vests the department with the jurisdiction and responsibility of establishing and maintaining personnel standards on a merit basis and administering merit systems for local government agencies where merit systems of employment are required by statute or regulation as a condition of a state-funded program or a federal grant-in-aid program. Existing law authorizes the department to bill state departments having responsibility for the overall administration of grant-in-aid programs for the costs incurred in conducting hearings involving employees of the local agencies. Existing law requires those state departments having responsibility for the overall administration of grant-in-aid programs to reimburse the department for related administrative costs incurred by the department.
Existing law authorizes the department to charge state agencies for actual and necessary costs of specific legal services, of arbitration relating to specific grievance arbitration cases, and of negotiating and administering memoranda of understanding governing state employer and employee relations.
Existing law authorizes the department to provide training programs to any public employee or officer, as defined, so that the quality of service rendered by those persons may be continually improved, and to collect registration fees from the employee's or officer's employing entity for attendance in a training program without entering into a written agreement with that employing entity or seeking the approval of the Department of General Services.
Existing law authorizes the Controller to establish procedures whereby payments between funds and appropriations within a state agency and between funds and appropriations of different state agencies may be made by transfers upon the Controllers' accounts in lieu of making those payments by claims and warrants.
This bill would require the Controller, pursuant to those transfer procedures, to transfer to the department any moneys owed to the department by the various state entities under the above-described provisions.
(3) Existing law authorizes the department to designate an appointing power to design, announce, or administer examinations for the establishment of employment lists. Existing law authorizes a designated appointing power to contract with the department or another designated appointing power for the purpose of designing, publicizing, or administering an examination.
This bill would require the department to charge designated appointing powers for those services and would require the Controller to transfer to the department any moneys owed to the department under these provisions.
(4) Existing law requires the department to take prescribed actions relating to state agency equal employment opportunity programs, including maintaining a statistical information system designed to yield the data and the analysis necessary for the evaluation of equal employment opportunity within the state civil service.
This bill would require the department to establish and maintain a tracking system to enable the collection of discrimination and harassment complaint data across state agencies. The bill would require the department to charge state agencies for maintenance and support of the system and would require the Controller to transfer to the department any moneys owed to the department under these provisions.
(5) Existing law establishes, within the state disability insurance program, a family temporary disability insurance program, also known as the Paid Family Leave program, for the provision of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a minor child within one year of birth or placement, for up to 6 weeks within any 12-month period.
Under existing law, when a state employee is disabled, whether temporarily or permanently, the employee is entitled, subject to certain conditions, to receive specified Nonindustrial Disability Insurance benefits, unless a memorandum of understanding conflicts with this requirement. Existing law authorizes an eligible employee, as defined, who has enrolled in the state annual leave program to receive Nonindustrial Disability Insurance benefits equal to 12 pay in lieu of using sick leave or annual leave.
This bill would authorize an eligible employee, as defined, to receive Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave benefits equal to 12 pay in lieu of using sick leave or annual leave, for up to 6 weeks of benefits during any 12-month period, for Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave, as defined. The bill would make conforming changes to existing Nonindustrial Disability Insurance benefits provisions.
(6) The existing Bill of Rights for State Excluded Employees prescribes various rights and terms and conditions of employment for excluded employees, defined as certain supervisory, managerial, and confidential state employees, among other specified employees.
This bill would amend the bill of rights to make certain employees or nonelected officers, who elect to participate in the state annual leave program and who are eligible to receive Nonindustrial Disability Insurance benefits that provide 12 pay, eligible for Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave benefits established by the bill.
(7) Existing federal law generally imposes taxes on employees and employers for the purpose of funding old-age, survivors, and disability insurance, commonly referred to as social security. Existing federal law authorizes states to enter into specified agreements with the federal government to extend social security coverage to employees of the state and its political subdivisions, as provided. California entered into such an agreement on March 9, 1951.
Existing law authorizes the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System to administer the agreement between the state and the federal government to extend social security coverage to employees of the state and specified public agencies. Existing law authorizes the board to charge or assess a public agency, as defined, its share of specified costs incurred by the board in the administration of social security on behalf of the public agency. Existing law requires these charges and assessments, among other things, to be deposited into the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance Revolving Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. Existing law requires the board to add a penalty of 10% of a charge or assessment if the public agency's payment is delinquent for 90 days, as provided, and requires the penalty to be credited as revenue to the General Fund.
This bill would increase the penalty for a delinquent charge or assessment to 50% of that charge or assessment and would impose an interest rate of 7% annually on unpaid charges, assessments, and penalties after 120 days. The bill would require the charges, assessments, penalties, and interest to be credited as revenue to the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance Revolving Fund for use by the board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for administrative purposes. The bill would require the board to submit to the Department of Finance for approval revised charges or assessments if the cumulative revenue of the charges, assessments, penalties, and interest in the fund exceeds the approved program expenditures in any given year. The bill would also authorize the Controller to transfer funds from state agencies to the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance Revolving Fund when charges or assessments are levied on those agencies.
Existing law authorizes the board to advance employer and employee old-age, survivors, and disability insurance contributions required to be made to the federal government by public agencies, as provided, and requires the board to charge an interest rate of 6% annually on any such advances.
This bill would increase the interest rate charged on advances to 7%.
(8) The Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act (PEMHCA) , which is administered by the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System, prescribes methods for calculating the state employer contribution for postemployment health care benefits for eligible retired public employees and their families and for the vesting of these benefits. PEMHCA establishes the Annuitants' Health Care Coverage Fund, which is continuously appropriated, for the purpose of prefunding health care coverage for annuitants, including administrative costs.
PEMHCA requires the employer contribution for each annuitant enrolled in a basic plan for health benefits to equal 80% of the weighted average of the health benefit plan premiums for an active employee enrolled for self-alone, during the benefit year to which the formula is applied, for the 4 health benefit plans with the largest state civil service enrollment. Existing law similarly provides that the employer contribution for an enrolled family member of an annuitant is an amount equal to 80% of the weighted average of the additional premiums required for enrollment of those family members during the benefit year to which the formula is applied and provides the same limit on employer contributions for annuitants enrolled in Medicare health benefit plans. Under existing law, these provisions apply to state employees represented by various bargaining units and judicial branch employees, as specified. Under existing law, if these provisions conflict with the provisions of a memorandum of understanding, the memorandum of understanding is controlling without further legislative action, except that if those provisions require the expenditure of funds, the provisions do not become effective unless approved by the Legislature.
This bill would extend these provisions to state employees that are not related to a state bargaining unit and who are excepted from the definition of state employee, as specified, and to officers or employees of the executive branch of state government who are not members of the civil service and who first become employed by the state and become a member of the system on or after July 1, 2019. By authorizing expenditure of revenue in a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.
(9) The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act establishes the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board and the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, which is continuously appropriated. Pursuant to the act, employees may participate in the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program, which is designed to promote retirement savings in a convenient, voluntary, and low-cost manner.
Existing law requires the Employment Development Department (EDD) to assess a penalty on any eligible employer that fails to make the program available to employees. Existing law makes these provisions operative 6 months after the board notifies the Director of Employment Development that the act will be implemented, based on specified factors. Existing law requires the EDD, upon receipt of notification from the board, to immediately post on its internet website a notice regarding the operative date.
This bill would instead make these provisions operative only when the board notifies the Director of Employment Development that enforcement should proceed and the board and the Director of Employment Development agree to a reasonable implementation timeline.
Existing law requires the board, before opening the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program for enrollment, to design and disseminate to employers through the EDD an employee information packet that includes background information on the program and disclosures. Existing law requires the employee information packet with the disclosure and opt-out forms to be available to employers through EDD and supplied to employees at the time of hiring.
This bill would instead require the board to design and disseminate to employers an employee information packet. The bill would also require the employee information packet with the disclosure and opt-out forms to be made available to eligible employees by the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program. By providing for the expenditure of funds in the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust by the board for a purpose that was previously the responsibility of EDD, the bill would make an appropriation.
Existing law establishes that information obtained in administering the Unemployment Insurance Law is confidential and for the exclusive use of the Director of Employment Development in discharging the director's duties. Existing law, however, requires the director to permit the use of information in the director's possession for specified purposes and allows the director to require reimbursement for direct costs incurred. Existing law provides that a person who knowingly accesses, uses, or discloses confidential information without authorization is guilty of a misdemeanor.
This bill would require the director to provide the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board with employer tax information for use in administering and facilitating compliance with the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act. By expanding the crime related to unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, the bill would create a state-mandated local program.
(10) Existing law regulates employers and contractors that provide janitorial services and prescribes requirements in this regard, including that they register with the Labor Commissioner Labor annually and keep certain records for three years, as specified. Existing law commits enforcement of these provisions with the Division of Labor Standards and requires the division to establish standards and requirements for sexual violence and harassment training to be provided to janitorial workers working for these employers and contractors. Existing law prohibits the division from registering or renewing a registration under certain circumstances and requires applications for registration and renewal of registration to complete sexual violence and harassment prevention training requirements. An employer or contractor who fails to register is subject to civil fines and a successor employer may be liable for wages and penalties of its predecessor under certain circumstances.
This bill would require that the sexual violence and harassment training requirement described above be consistent with training requirements established by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill revise the definition of an employer to clarify that it does not include an entity that is the recipient of janitorial services. The bill would require employers and contractors for janitorial services to keep accurate records for 3 years of the names, addresses, periods of work, and compensation paid to their workers. The bill would require that applications for registration and renewal of registration demonstrate completion of sexual violence and harassment prevention training by written attestation. The bill would broaden the circumstances under which the division is prohibited from registering or renewing a registration to include when an employer has failed to satisfy certain judgments and settlements. The bill would provide that a successor employer may be liable for damages of a predecessor employer. The bill would make other technical and conforming changes.
(11) Existing law, the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, prohibits a domestic work employee, as defined, who is a personal attendant from being employed more than 9 hours in any workday or more than 45 hours in any workweek, unless the employee receives 1.5 times the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 9 hours in any workday and for all hours worked more than 45 hours in the workweek. Existing law defines "domestic work," "domestic work employee," and "domestic work employer" for these purposes. Existing law creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations.
This bill, until July 1, 2024, would require the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, upon appropriation of funding for this purpose, to establish and maintain an outreach and education program for the purpose of promoting of awareness of, and compliance with, labor protections that affect the domestic work industry and fair and dignified labor standards in this industry and other low-wage industries. The bill would require the division to issue a competitive request to community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide education and outreach services in this connection and would prescribe requirements for these organizations. The CBOs would be responsible for developing and consulting with the division regarding the core education and outreach materials, as specified. The bill would require the division and CBOs to meet at least biannually to coordinate efforts around outreach, education and enforcement. The bill would prohibit the division from spending more than 5% of a budget allocation for administration of the program. The bill would appropriate $5,000,000 from the General Fund to the division for these purposes, as specified. The bill would make a statement of legislative findings.
(12) Existing law authorizes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt, amend, or repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders. Existing law requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in the Department of Industrial Relations, known as Cal-OSHA, to propose to the board for its review and adoption, a standard that protects the health and safety of employees who engage in lead-related construction work and meets all requirements imposed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The bill would require Cal-OSHA to submit to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board a rulemaking proposal to revise the lead standards for purposes of general industry safety orders and construction safety orders, consistent with scientific research and findings. The bill would require the board to vote on the proposed changes by September 30, 2020.
(13) Existing unemployment compensation disabilit