On September 30, 2020, the deadline for Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto new laws expired, bringing the 2020 California Legislative session to a conclusion.  As expected, there were a number of new employment laws enacted in 2020, many of them COVID-19 related, including laws to:

• Enact “COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave” for employers with 500 or more employees (AB 1867);
• Expand the California Family Rights Act to apply to employers with five or more employees and expand the family members for whom leave may be taken due to a serious medical condition (SB 1383);
• Amend AB 5’s worker classification standard, including expanding the professional services and industries exempted from the so-called ABC Test for worker classification purposes (AB 2257);
• Create a presumption of workers compensation coverage for COVID-19 injuries and enact new employer notice requirements to claims administrators (SB1159)
• Create new employer notice requirements regarding potential COVID-19 exposure at worksite and expand Cal-OSHA stop order powers (AB 685);
• Require larger employers to annually submit “pay data reports” to the DFEH (SB 973);
• Extend for an additional year the “employment” exemptions from the California Consumer Privacy Act (AB 1281);
• Require California corporations to have directors from “underrepresented communities” (AB 979);
• Add human resources professionals and supervisors to the list of “mandated reporters” for child abuse purposes (AB 1963); and
• Expedite the process for the DIR to approve “work sharing plans” submitted by employers in lieu of layoffs (AB 1731);

In addition to these new statewide laws, the minimum wage for California and for many municipalities will increase again on January 1, 2021.