Labor & Employment

Establishes a prison preapprenticeship program for construction trades training by January 2028. Requires implementation in at least one men's and one women's correctional facility. Provides comprehensive support services including housing, transportation, and career counseling. Mandates annual reporting on program enrollment, completion rates, and job placements starting 2029.

Revises how employers calculate wage credits on public works projects by requiring annualization of benefit payments. Requires employers to prove proper calculation of wage credits through detailed payment records. Revokes all previous exemptions to annualization requirements starting January 1, 2026. Allows full credit for pension plans that offer immediate participation and vesting within 500 work hours.

Requires private owners or developers on prevailing wage projects to disclose specified records. Covers bidding data, final contracts, contractor IDs, payroll, and workforce reports, with redactions. Sets penalties for noncompliance: $100 per worker per day for payroll and $500 for other records. Applies to private projects first bid or executed after Jan 1, 2026 and requires director rulemaking.

Limits employer reimbursement to one-third of insurance payouts for injured police and firefighter claims. Prohibits employers from using third-party settlements to reduce future workers' compensation benefits. Allows police and firefighters to settle third-party claims without employer consent. Applies only to public safety workers employed by cities, counties, and fire protection districts.

Requires employers to provide annual written notices to workers about their workplace and constitutional rights by 2026. Mandates employers to notify emergency contacts if workers are arrested or detained at work. Establishes penalties up to $500 per violation, with higher fines for emergency contact violations. Creates template notices and training videos in multiple languages through the Labor Commissioner.

Requires ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach to publish quarterly data about trucks entering their facilities by 2027. Mandates trucking companies to report worker compensation insurance and tax withholding details for employee drivers. Requires independent truck drivers to submit annual documentation including permits and insurance proof. Imposes $20,000 penalties for false reporting and $5,000 fines for failing to report major workforce changes.

Establishes an amnesty program for construction contractors who misclassified truck drivers as independent contractors. Requires contractors to reclassify drivers as employees and pay back wages, benefits, and taxes by January 2029. Mandates reimbursement for construction drivers who use their own vehicles for work duties. Clarifies that vehicle ownership alone does not make a worker an independent contractor.

Requires employers to notify workers 30 days before using automated decision systems for employment decisions. Prohibits employers from using automated systems as the sole basis for discipline or termination decisions. Mandates human review of automated decisions affecting worker discipline or termination. Grants workers the right to request their data used in automated employment decisions once per year.

Expands criminal penalties for battery against public transportation workers and contractors. Enables employers to obtain restraining orders to protect transportation workers from harassment or violence. Requires courts to process workplace violence restraining orders within 21 days of filing. Prohibits individuals under restraining orders from possessing firearms or ammunition.

Requires firefighter protective equipment to be free of toxic PFAS chemicals and flame retardants by 2028. Mandates manufacturers to certify that new firefighting gear meets stricter safety standards. Establishes a 10-year timeline to phase out existing protective equipment containing harmful substances. Requires state safety officials to report on implementation progress by July 2026.

Establishes a death benefit for incarcerated firefighters who die while on duty in California Conservation Camps. Requires payment of $50,000 plus half of the deceased's prior year earnings to their designated beneficiary. Mandates the death benefit must be paid within 60 days of the firefighter's death. Covers deaths during active deployments, training exercises, or resulting duty-related incapacitation.

Authorizes employers to make retroactive wage payments on clean energy projects to qualify for federal tax incentives. Applies only to renewable energy projects completed between January 2023 and December 2024. Protects employers from penalties when making voluntary retroactive wage adjustments. Expires automatically on January 1, 2029.

Establishes standardized forms for workers' compensation medical evaluations to streamline the claims process. Requires the creation of a template report form for qualified medical evaluators by January 2027. Mandates a new standardized form for requesting medical evaluations from qualified medical evaluators. Preserves parties' rights to submit additional medical information beyond the standard forms.

Establishes a disputable heat injury presumption for outdoor farmworkers when heat standards are not met. Decides the presumption, and the employee wins if the employer cannot rebut it. Provides medical treatment and disability benefits for heat injuries. Creates a $5M seed fund and payroll surcharges to finance the program, ending in 2031.

Increases minimum civil penalties for unlicensed contractor violations from $200 to $1,500 starting July 1, 2026. Authorizes the Contractors State License Board to adjust penalty amounts for inflation every five years. Doubles the board's maximum reserve fund from 6 months to 12 months of annual expenditures. Establishes new minimum penalties ranging from $500 to $1,500 for various contractor licensing violations.

Prohibits certain post-2026 employment contract terms that charge workers after termination. Creates private enforcement with damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees. Carves out government loan relief, tuition contracts, apprenticeships, upfront pay. Defines key terms to determine scope, including contract, debt, employer, and worker.

Restores former leave protections through 2024 and shifts enforcement to civil rights. Expands leave rights for crime victims and families, including court proceedings and safety steps. Creates new paid sick days framework with specific triggers and confidentiality rules. Directs immediate effect as an urgency statute for rapid implementation.

Establishes time-limited protections for work authorization. Grants up to five unpaid leave days per year for immigration-related matters. Provides reinstatement after work-authorization delays. Enforces the provisions and preserves CBA/MOU seniority and detainment leave.

Requires the $7.25 hourly wage for inmate hand crews on active fires and sets annual review. Amends credits to two days per day and adds wage dispute rules for sums owed. Extends wage to Pine Grove ward or youth hand crews, with annual review and dispute processes. Declares the measure an urgency statute with immediate effect for wildfire readiness.

Extends health benefits for fallen first responders' children from age 21 to 26. Applies to dependents of firefighters and peace officers killed in the line of duty. Maintains existing coverage terms for surviving spouses without allowing addition of new family members. Includes retroactive coverage for deaths that occurred before September 30, 1996.

Mandates wildfire recovery workforce funding for LA and Ventura. Directs CWDB to route 2025 funds to LA County for rebuilding jobs. Reallocates $600,000 to the Economic Development Collaborative and allows subcontracting. Permits up to 5% admin, requires quality standards, and enables expedited licensing where feasible.

Grants the Teachers' Retirement Board final authority to determine employers and membership eligibility. Establishes new financial metrics for terminating reduced workload agreements based on annualized pay rates. Modifies fund transfer dates to ensure payments occur on the next business day if deadlines fall on weekends. Strengthens enforcement by imposing $200 monthly fees on employers who fail to report retired member employment.

Establishes a new workplace outreach program to educate vulnerable workers about their employment rights. Requires nonprofit organizations to conduct in-person education in high-risk industries through competitive selection. Mandates translation of educational materials into multiple languages based on regional needs. Expires automatically on January 1, 2031 unless renewed by the legislature.

Extends the recall framework to January 1, 2027. Broadens coverage to hotels, airports, airport services, event centers, and private clubs. Maintains five-day recall offers and five-day acceptance with length-of-service preference. Preserves DLSE enforcement with front pay, back pay, penalties, and no criminal penalties.

Reestablishes the licensed manicurist exemption through Jan 1, 2029. Extends the commercial fisher exemption on American vessels to Jan 1, 2031. Mandates EDD and DLSE report misclassification data for licensed manicurists by June 1, 2026. Updates reporting date for commercial fishing unemployment data to June 30.