Employment Bills of Concern Move Ahead of House-of-Origin Deadlines
June 6 is the last day for both houses of the Legislature to pass bills originating in the respective houses, causing the usual last-minute rush to pass bills before this deadline.
AB 1336 (Addis, D-San Luis Obispo) would establish a rebuttable presumption that workers’ compensation claims related to heat illness are work-related—exclusively for agricultural employees. The bill passed the Assembly on June 3 with a 61–16–2 vote and is nearly identical to SB 1299 (Cortese, D–San Jose), which Gov. Newsom vetoed in 2024. In his veto message, the governor highlighted existing protections developed by the Department of Industrial Relations, Cal/OSHA and other state agencies, and questioned whether such a presumption would meaningfully improve protections for agricultural employees. Farm Bureau opposes the bill. Staff Contact: Bryan Little, blittle@cfbf.com
AB 1362 (Kalra, D–San Jose), which would create a duplicative registration system for farm labor contractors who source employees through the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program, passed the Assembly on June 2 by a vote of 57–12–10. The registration requirement for foreign labor contractors is largely redundant with the existing requirements for obtaining a California farm labor contractor license. Gov. Newsom vetoed a virtually identical bill—AB 364 (Rodriguez, D–Pomona)—in 2022, citing this redundancy in his veto message. Farm Bureau opposes the bill. Staff Contact: Bryan Little, blittle@cfbf.com
On April 9, the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee approved SB 310 (Wiener, D-San Francisco) and referred it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Wiener’s bill creates a new private right of action to recover penalties under the Labor Code, directly undoing Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reforms enacted by the Legislature last summer. Farm Bureau opposes. Staff Contact: Bryan Little; blittle@cfbf.com
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