2022 is coming to a close, and the new year will be here before we know it. While many states, cities and counties seem to be willing to pass employment laws and regulations at any time, the first day of a new year is still the number one day for new employment laws to take effect. 2023 will be no exception.
Littler Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) has been tracking a host of new employment laws as they have been debated over the past few months. Below is WPI’s annual summary of some of the notable compliance obligations employers will soon be facing. As in the past, this article is not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of every single new employment and labor law. The article focuses on laws of “general application,” although a few industry-specific laws are mentioned. We also cover most large jurisdictions, but not all, and we do not discuss the host of new minimum wage laws, which are just around the corner.
So get ready—new labor and employment law compliance challenges are here to ring in the new year!
Law, Ordinance or Regulation
Main Topic
Summary
Effective Date
Fast Food Industry: Regulation
Creates the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act. This law establishes a state Fast Food Council within the Department of Industrial Relations, which will be empowered to impose sector-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of fast food restaurant workers.
January 1, 2023
Protected Time Off: Scope of Coverage
Expands the definition of a “family member” under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and California’s Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act (HWHFA) to include a “designated person.” Employees will be able to identify a designated person for whom they want to use leave when they request unpaid (CFRA) or paid (HWHFA) leave.
January 1, 2023
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN): Call Center Employees
Requires call center employers to provide notice of mass layoff, relocation, or termination.
January 1, 2023
Title III Accommodations
Requires businesses open to the public that have restrooms for employees to allow individuals who have Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, or any other similar medical condition, to use the employee restrooms.
January 1, 2023
Background Checks: Home Health Services
Removes requirement for specified individuals connected with home healthcare facilities to sign a declaration regarding prior criminal convictions.
January 1, 2023
COVID-19: Workers' Compensation
Extends to January 1, 2024, the current rebuttable presumption that an employee’s illness resulting from COVID-19 was sustained in the course of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation benefits.
January 1, 2023
Employer Liability: Human Trafficking
Provides that hotel employers are liable for human tracking penalties if a supervisory employee knew of or acted with reckless disregard of sex trafficking activity.
January 1, 2023
Protected Time Off: Bereavement Leave
Amends the California Family Rights Act to require employers with five or more employees to provide up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave for an employee within three months of the death of a family member.
January 1, 2023
COVID-19: Workplace Posters
Requires certain health and safety posters relating to COVID-19 to be posted in additional languages.
January 1, 2023
Benefits: Reproductive Health
Applies to religious employers’ healthcare service plans and insurers that do not provide coverage for abortion and contraception. These plans and insurers will be required to provide insured employees with written information about free abortion and contraception benefits or services available through the California Reproductive Health Equity Program.
January 1, 2023
Labor-Management Relations: Farm Workers
The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act gives agricultural workers the option to vote by mail in union representation elections that were previously required to be held in person.
January 1, 2023
Employer Liability: Reproductive Health
Prohibits a person from being subject to civil or criminal liability based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome or based on their actions to aid or assist a woman or pregnant person who is exercising their reproductive rights.
January 1, 2023
Discrimination & Harassment: Hate Crimes
Expands the definition of hate crimes in places of employment to include display of hate imagery.
January 1, 2023
COVID-19: Exposure Notifications
Amends California Labor Code section 6409.6 (Duties of employer when notified of potential exposure to COVID-19) and extends its provisions until January 1, 2024. The main modification will give employers the option to post a notice of potential COVID-19 exposure at the worksite (and on existing employee portals) instead of providing written notice.
January 1, 2023
Civil Procedure
Amends the Fair Employment and Housing Act to toll right-to-sue notice deadlines during mandatory or voluntary dispute resolution proceedings.
January 1, 2023
Protected Categories: Reproductive Health
Amends the Fair Employment and Housing Act to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of an individual’s reproductive health decision-making; expands required health plan coverage for contraceptives.
January 1, 2023
Background Checks: Criminal
Amends the state penal code to provide for criminal record relief. Seals records of defendants convicted of most felonies on or after January 1, 2005, if they completed their sentence, probation, supervision, parole and any other terms of their conviction, and are not convicted of a new felony for four years.
January 1, 2023
Labor-Management Relations
Permits an employee organization to file a claim against an employer before the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) alleging violations of Government Code section 3550, which prohibits a public employer from deterring or discouraging public employees or applicants from becoming or remaining members of an employee organization.
January 1, 2023
Protected Time Off: FMLA Paid
Increases the amount of unemployment and wage replacement benefits for low-wage employees under the family temporary disability insurance program, for disabilities or covered incidents occurring on or after January 1, 2025.
January 1, 2023
Privacy: Surveillance
Disclosure regarding use of GPS tracking location technology in fleet vehicles. Allows an employee to disable off hours.
January 1, 2023
Data Privacy
Substantially expands the privacy and information security obligations of most employers doing business in California, requiring significant changes to existing policies, procedures, and practices for handling HR Individuals’ personal information. Creates the Privacy Protection Agency to enforce the state consumer data privacy laws.
January 1, 2023
Protected Time Off: Non-Retaliation
Prohibits an employer from taking adverse action against an employee for refusing to report to or leaving work during an emergency condition; prohibits an employer from preventing an employee from accessing a mobile device during that time.
January 1, 2023
Home Care Agencies: Background Checks
Permits applicants for home healthcare licenses to request transfers of criminal record clearance online; removes requirement to submit government issued identification when requesting transfer.
January 1, 2023
Benefits: 401K/Retirement/Pension
Expands the definition of “eligible employer” under the CalSavers program to include those with one or more employees; requires employers with one or more employees that do not offer a retirement savings program to implement a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement by December 31, 2025.
January 1, 2023
Wage Transparency
Requires employers of 100 or more contracted employees to submit separate annual pay data reports regarding the contracted employees; requires employers of 15 or more employees to provide the pay scale for a position in any job posting.
January 1, 2023
Wage & Hour: Garnishments
Reduces the maximum amount of wages that may be subject to garnishment.
January 1, 2023
