Employment: unlawful discrimination: victims of violence.

Plain English Breakdown

The candidate explanation included a statement about transferring enforcement authority from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Civil Rights Department which was not clearly supported by the official source material.

Employment Rules for Victims of Violence

AB-406 reinstates previous employment rules related to discrimination and retaliation against victims of violence, transferring enforcement authority from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Civil Rights Department.

What This Bill Does

• Reinstates former Labor Code provisions that allowed employees who faced discrimination or retaliation for exercising certain rights to file complaints with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement until December 31, 2024.
• Transfers enforcement authority for rules about attending judicial proceedings from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Civil Rights Department.
• Requires employers with at least 25 employees not to discriminate or retaliate against workers who need time off due to a violent act affecting them or their family members.

Who It Names or Affects

• Employees in California
• Employers with 25 or more employees

Terms To Know

Civil Rights Department

A part of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency that enforces laws about fair treatment in housing and employment.

Qualifying act of violence

An event involving physical harm or threat that allows an employee to take time off work without losing their job.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill only applies to actions or inactions occurring on or before December 31, 2024.
• It does not specify the exact effective date but declares it as an urgency statute that takes effect immediately upon enactment.

Official Summary Text

AB 406, Schiavo.
Employment: unlawful discrimination: victims of violence.
Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, under the direction of the Director of Civil Rights, to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status. Existing law prescribes various functions, duties, and powers of the department, including, among others, to bring prescribed civil actions for violations of specified federal civil rights and antidiscrimination laws.
Prior law, until January 1, 2025, authorized an employee who was discriminated or retaliated against for exercising certain rights to file a complaint with the Division of Labor
Standards Enforcement in accordance with specified Labor Code provisions. These employee rights include, among other things, the right to take time off work to serve on a trial or to obtain specified crime-related relief.
Existing law, as of January 1, 2025, transferred the authority to enforce these discrimination provisions from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Civil Rights Department. Existing law also repealed the above-described Labor Code provisions, and added new enforcement provisions to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act within the Government Code. Among other changes, these provisions refer to a “qualifying act of violence,” as defined, instead of crime, or crime or abuse, for purposes of obtaining relief. Existing law further prohibits an employer with 25 or more employees from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is a victim or who has a family member who is a victim for taking
time off work for any of a number of additional prescribed purposes relating to a qualifying act of violence, as defined. Existing law requires an employee, as a condition of taking time off, to provide the employer with reasonable advance notice, unless not feasible, in accordance with certain procedural requirements.
This bill would reinstate the above-described former Labor Code provisions, to apply only to alleged actions or inactions occurring on or before December 31, 2024.
This bill would also transfer enforcement authority for two additional discrimination provisions relating to attending judicial proceedings from the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement to the Civil Rights Department.
The bill would make other conforming changes.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect
immediately as an urgency statute.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF