BILL NUMBER: AB 357	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 12, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Chiu and Weber
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Leyva)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bonta, Chu, Gonzalez,  and
Roger Hernández   Roger Hernández,   and
Thurmond  )

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2015

   An act  to add Sections 518 and 519 to the Labor Code, and to
amend Section 11320.31 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, 
relating to employment.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 357, as amended, Chiu. Employment: work hours: 
scheduling.   Fair Scheduling Act of 2015. 
   Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a
day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed
overtime compensation for additional hours worked.  Existing law
establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the
Department of Industrial Relations for the enforcement of labor laws,
including wage claims. Existing federal law provides for the
allocation of federal funds through the federal Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program to eligible states,
with California's version of this program known as the California
Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Under
the CalWORKs program, each county provides cash assistance and other
benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals, and is
prohibited from   applying sanctions upon a recipient of
CalWORKs for a failure or refusal to comply with program requirements
for reasons related to employment, an offer of employment, an
activity, or other training for employment for specified reasons,
including, but not limited to that the employment, offer of
employment, or work activity does not provide workers' compensation
insurance. Existing law establishes a statewide program to enable
eligible low-income persons to receive food stamps under the federal
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California
as CalFresh, and requires counties to implement the program. 
   This bill would make legislative findings and declarations
relating to work hour scheduling for employees of food and general
retail establishments.  The bill would require a food and general
retail establishment, as defined, to provide its employees with at
least two week's notice of their schedules, and would require those
employees to receive additional pay, as specified, if those employees
do not receive at least two week's notice of their work schedule.
  The bill would prohibit a food and general retail
establishment fro   m discharging or discriminating against
an employee because he or she is a person who receives, or is a
parent, guardian, or grandparent who has custody of one or more
children who receive, benefits under the CalWORKs program or a person
who receives benefits under CalFresh. The bill would also require an
employer to allow such an employee to, upon request, be absent from
work without pay to attend any required appointments at the county
human services agency, provided that the employee gives reasonable
notice to the employer of the planned absence from work prior to
taking time off of work. The bill would   require the Labor
Commissioner to promulgate all regulations and rules or practice and
procedure necessary to carry out these provisions. The bill would
also prohibit sanctions from being applied upon a recipient of
CalWORKs for failure or refusal to comply with CalWORKs program
requirements if the employment or offer of employment fails to comply
with these provisions.  
   Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General
Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program.
 
   This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation
would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  no
  yes  . State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Fair
 Schedule and Pay Equity   Scheduling  Act
 of 2015  .
  SEC. 2.  The Legislature finds and declares the following:
   (a) More than  one-half   one-half  of
food and general retail store employees nationally receive their work
schedules one week or less in advance.
   (b) According to a recent survey of employees at chain stores and
large stores, only 40 percent of those surveyed have consistent
minimum hours per week and the vast majority of employees find out
from a supervisor if they are needed for the on-call shift a mere two
hours before the shift starts. Retail industry research in New York
City found that more than one-half of family caregivers in the retail
industry are required to be available for on-call shifts, forcing
them to arrange for child or elder care at the last minute.
   (c) Women are also more likely than men to work part time and
experience unpredictability in their work schedules; one study found
that women were 64 percent of the frontline part-time workforce among
retail workers.
   (d) Unpredictable scheduling practices and last-minute work
schedule changes cause workers who are already struggling with low
wages to live in a constant state of insecurity about when they will
work or how much they will earn on any given day. These practices
also make it hard for employees to plan their finances and to plan
for and obtain child care. These practices also prevent part-time
employees from pursuing educational opportunities or holding a second
or third job that those workers may need to make ends meet.
   (e) According to census data, since 2006, the number of
"involuntary part time employees" in California nearly tripled to
1,100,000 employees. According to the federal Bureau of Labor
Statistics, less than one-half of the retail workforce nationwide
works  fulltime,   full time,  and the
number of those working fewer than 20 hours per week has grown by 14
percent in the past decade.
   (f) According to a survey conducted in 2014 of workers who sell
food in California, the largest producer of food in the United
States, they are twice as likely as the general populace to be unable
to afford sufficient quantities of the food they sell or the healthy
kinds of food their families need, despite the financial health of
the food retail industry. According to this same survey, workers who
were Black or Latino were far more likely to be sent home early with
no pay, to have a shift canceled on the same day it is scheduled, to
not be offered a lunch break, or not be paid for all hours worked.
   (g) For these reasons, to ensure family and financial stability
for a vast segment of California's workforce, those employed by food
and general retail establishments should be afforded some
predictability and dignity in how they are scheduled to work.
   SEC. 3.    Section 518 is added to the  
Labor Code   , to read:  
   518.  (a) For purposes of this section, a "food and general retail
establishment" means an entity that conducts any type of retail
sales activity or a retail sales establishment that has 500 or more
employees in this state and has 10 or more other retail sales
establishments located in the United States of America and maintains
two or more of the following:
   (1) A standardized array of merchandise.
   (2) A standardized facade.
   (3) A standardized decor and color scheme.
   (4) Uniform apparel.
   (5) Standardized signage.
   (6) A trademark or a service mark.
   (b) A food and general retail establishment shall provide its
employees with at least two week's notice of their work schedules.
   (c) If an employee is not provided with at least two week's notice
of his or her work schedule, the employee shall receive additional
pay. The amount of the additional pay shall increase as the time the
employee receives notice of his or her work schedule decreases from
the required two week's notice.
   (d) The Labor Commissioner shall promulgate all regulations and
rules of practice and procedures necessary to carry out the
provisions of this section.
   (e) A violation of this section shall not be a misdemeanor under
Section 553. 
   SEC. 4.    Section 519 is added to the  
Labor Code   , to read:  
   519.  (a) A food and general retail establishment, as defined in
Section 518, shall not discharge or discriminate against an employee
because he or she is any of the following:
   (1) A person who receives CalWORKs cash aid.
   (2) A parent, guardian, or grandparent who has custody of one or
more children who receive CalWORKs cash aid.
   (3) A person who receives CalFresh food assistance.
   (b) A food and general retail establishment, as defined in Section
518, shall allow an employee described in subdivision (a) to be
absent from work without pay, upon request, to attend any required
appointments at the county human services agency, provided that the
employee gives reasonable notice to the employer of the planned
absence prior to taking the time off.
   (c) The Labor Commissioner shall promulgate all regulations and
rules of practice and procedures necessary to carry out the
provisions of this section.
   (d) A violation of this section shall not be a misdemeanor under
Section 553. 
   SEC. 5.    Section 11320.31 of the   Welfare
and Institutions Code   is amended to read: 
   11320.31.  Sanctions shall not be applied for a failure or refusal
to comply with program requirements for reasons related to
employment, an offer of employment, an activity, or other training
for employment including, but not limited to, the following reasons:
   (a) The employment, offer of employment, activity, or other
training for employment discriminates on any basis listed in
subdivision (a) of Section 12940 of the Government Code, as those
bases are defined in Sections 12926 and 12926.1 of the Government
Code, except as otherwise provided in Section 12940 of the Government
Code.
   (b) The employment or offer of employment exceeds the daily or
weekly hours of work customary to the occupation.
   (c) The employment, offer of employment, activity, or other
training for employment requires travel to and from the place of
employment, activity, or other training and one's home that exceeds a
total of two hours in round-trip time, exclusive of the time
necessary to transport family members to a school or place providing
care, or, when walking is the only available means of transportation,
the round-trip is more than two miles, exclusive of the mileage
necessary to accompany family members to a school or a place
providing care. An individual who fails or refuses to comply with the
program requirements based on this subdivision shall be required to
participate in community service activities pursuant to Section
11322.9.
   (d) The employment, offer of employment, activity, or other
training for employment involves conditions that are in violation of
applicable health and safety standards.
   (e) The employment, offer of employment, or work activity does not
provide for workers' compensation insurance.
   (f) Accepting the employment or work activity would cause an
interruption in an approved education or job training program in
progress that would otherwise lead to employment and sufficient
income to be self-supporting, excluding work experience or community
service employment as described in subdivisions (d) and (j) of
Section 11322.6 and Section 11322.9 or other community work
experience assignments, except that a recipient may be required to
engage in welfare-to-work activities to the extent necessary to meet
the hours of participation required by Section 11322.8.
   (g) Accepting the employment, offer of employment, or work
activity would cause the individual to violate the terms of his or
her union membership. 
   (h) The employment or offer of employment fails to comply with the
Fair Scheduling Act of 2015 (Sections 518 and 519 of the Labor
Code).  
  SEC. 6.    No appropriation pursuant to Section 15200 of
the Welfare and Institutions Code shall be made for purposes of
implementing this act.