|
WORKSAFE! is TRACKING the following LEGISLATION
Table of Contents
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 354 by Assembly Member Ed Hernandez (D - Baldwin Park). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment Committee on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations on May 9, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 21, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on July 16, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 354 : Occupational safety and health: lead abatement registration program.
Existing law mandates the proposal, review, and adoption of standards and requirements to protect the health and safety of employees who engage in lead-related construction work.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to establish a program to register licensed contractors who perform lead abatement work, to be administered by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 371 by Assembly Member Huffman . Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Health Committee on April 10, 2007. Passed Assembly Labor & Employment Committee on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly on June 6, 2007. Passed Senate Health Committee on July 11, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
|
| Description: |
|
AB 371 : Health facilities
Existing law regulates the operation of health facilities, including hospitals. The existing California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act empowers the California Health Facilities Financing Authority to make loans from the continuously appropriated California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund to nonprofit corporations or associations for financing or refinancing the acquisition, construction, or remodeling of health facilities.
Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, establishes certain safety and other responsibilities of employers and employees, including, but not limited to, the requirement that no employer shall fail or neglect to provide safety devices or safeguards reasonably necessary to render the employment safe. This law also requires each employer to establish, implement, and maintain an effective injury prevention program, as prescribed.
This bill would require every general acute care hospital that applies to the authority for financing from the issuance of tax-exempt bonds to provide the authority with a copy of the hospital's injury and illness prevention program established, implemented, and maintained pursuant to the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 or through a collective bargaining agreement. The copy of the program shall specify how the general acute care hospital plans to implement or has implemented the program with a specified zero lift component. Except as specified, the bill would require at least 1% of the amount of bond financing or $100,000, whichever amount is greater, to be allocated for the planning, purchase, construction, and installation of equipment to implement the zero lift component. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 514 by Assembly Member Sally Lieber (D - Mountain View). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. Click here for more information about diacetyl on the Worksafe website. |
|
| Position: |
|
SPONSOR - SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment Committee on Mar 28, 2007. Passed Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee on April 10, 2007. Passed Assembly Approriations on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly on June 4, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee on July 2, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 514 : Worksafe safety and health: diacetyl
Under existing law, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board may adopt standards concerning removing hazardous substances from the workplace.
The bill would require the board, no later that January 30, 2008, to adopt a standard to prohibit the use of diacetyl in the workplace by January 1, 2010. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 515 by Assembly Member Sally Lieber (D - Mountain View). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SPONSOR - SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly on June 5, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee on July 2, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 515 : This bill will better protect workers exposed to chemicals that cause cancer or reproductive or developmental damage.
Existing law provides that the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSH Standards Board) - which adopts standards for California workers - adopt the standard regarding toxic materials "which most adequately assures, to the extent feasible, that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity even if such employee has regular exposure to a [regulated] hazard ... for the period of hsi working life."
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that the board set as its highest priority protection against the effects of those substances that may cause cancer or reproductive or developmental toxicity and require the board to adopt standards establishing permissible exposure limit(PEL) for workplace hazardous substances known to the state to cause cancer, reproductive or developmental harm and for which there is an existing quantitative risk assessment published by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The OSH Standards Board would request from OEHHA a health-based occupational exposure level (OEL) upon which it would rely unless presented with clear and convincing evidence that the exposure level is not feasible.
This bill focuses on several dozen substances which the California EPA has said are either carcinogens, reproductive or developmental hazards and which are found in the workplace. The California Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for environmental exposure for many chemicals. But the OEL will NOT be the same as the standard for the environment but will be adjusted to take account for the fact that workers are exposed for lesser periods of time (during the work day and for a 40-year work life).
DESPITE the fact that the State of California knows (and for many has known for years) that these substances cause cancer or reproducitve or developmental harm, workers may LEGALLY be exposed to these TOXIC CHEMICALS in the workplace in amounts that are magnitudes greater than one may be exposed, after workplace adjustement, in our general environment . These toxics are either completely unregulated in the work place or are regulated only to protect workers from short term effects such as headaches or dizziness or irriation -- NOT to protect us from CANCER or REPRODUCTIVE or DEVELOPMENTAL HARM.
This also means that for some of these substances, workers DO NOT EVEN KNOW that the chemical they are using can cause cancer based upon an exposure level approved by Cal/OSHA - BECAUSE the Cal/OSHA level does NOT PROTECT AGAINST CANCER..
The State of California Environmental Protection Agency has already determined a number of chemicals to cause cancer, reproductive or developmental harm. It has determined health-based risk assessments (prepared by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) which is part of Cal EPA). It knows how many excess deaths or illnesses will result when workers are exposed over their working life (40 years, 50 weeks/year, 8 hours/day) and can provide a range of numbers for the health-based risk assessment.
AB 515 will require the OSH Standards Board to use the health-based risk assessments (adjusted for working life) already determined by the State of California. It will not permit the OSH Standards Board or Cal/OSHA to re-invent the wheel, but will require it to utilize the health-based risk assessment already vetted publicly by the CA EPA process.
The OSH Standards Board will continue to have discretion to set the final permissible exposure limits levels at something less than optimal for protecting worker health if such an adjustment is based on proven data demonstrating the health-based levels are not feasible. The Legislature gave the OSH Standards Board their authority and it has the right to assure that the Board follows the law which states that standards should "most adequately assure, to the extent feasible, that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity even if such employee has regular exposure to a hazard . . . for the period of his working life."
AB 515 sets timelines for the hazardous substances for which there is an existing permissible exposure limit.
This bill will save money for the State of California by saving lives. Each year, 23,000 Californians are diagnosed with a chronic, deadly disease attributed to chemical exposure at work. And about 6,500 workers die each year due to chronic diseases associated with workplace exposures.
The OSH Standards Board must set permissible exposure limits that apply to all workplaces to provide an even playing field for companies that want to protect workers -- and that adequately protect from chronic diseases such as cancer and from reproductive harm, the hardworking men and woman who contribute to California's vibrant economy.
We don't go to work to die, we go to work.
AB 515 will close the gap between workplace and environmental regulations (standards) so that workers are better protected on the job.
CLICK HERE for the Worksafe list of 40 chemicals NOT REGULATED by Cal/OSHA to a degree that would protect against cancer and/or reproductive and developmental toxicity. OEHHA has prepared quantitative risk assessments for these (36 are for carcinogens (some of these also cause other harm) and 4 are for chemicals that cause only reproductive or developmental harm). Of the 40, 9 of these are completely UNREGULATED - workers receive NO PROTECTION AT ALL.
Click here for a set of tutorials on the basics of toxicology.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in FINDING OEHHA sources for QRAs, see:
- click here for Hot Spots Unit Risk and Cancer Potency Values
- click here for Proposition 65 Safe Harbor Levels
- click here for Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (ChRELs) Air Toxicology Branch
- click here for Water Public Health Goals (PHGs) |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 1467 by Assembly Member Mark Desaulnier (D - Martinez). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 2, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 14, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 13, 2007. In Assembly as of August 30, 2007. To enrollment. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 1467 : Worker Safety
Existing law prohibits smoking of tobacco products inside all enclosed spaces of places of employment as defined, but exempts certain places or employment, including owner-operated bars and specified warehouses, hotel lobbies, employee break reooms, and meeting and banquet rooms, from this prohibition.
This bill would remove the exemptions that permit smoking in specified bars, warehouses, hotel lobbies, employee breakrooms, and meeting and banquet rooms, while retaining exemptions for other types of businesses. This bill would also prohibit smoking in specified owner-operated businesses regardless of whether or not they have employees. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 1711 by Assembly Member Sandré Swanson (D - Oakland). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 2, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 10, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Inactive as of August 30, 2007. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 1711 : Employment Safety
Existing law requires an employer to file with the Department of Industrial Relations a report of every occupational injury or illness. If the employee subsequently dies as the result of the reported illness or injury, the employer must file with the department an amended report indicating the death. In every case involving serious injury or illness the employer must also make an immediate report to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health by telephone. Employers who violate this subdivision will be subject to civil penalties including fines.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
|
SB 171 by Senate Member Don Perata (D - Oakland). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
|
Position: |
|
SUPPORT |
|
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Commitee on March 28, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Senate floor on June 4, 2007. Passed Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on June 20, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Assembly.
|
|
Description: |
|
SB 171 : Hospials: lift teams.
Existing law regulates the operation of health facilities, including hospitals.
Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, establishes certain safety and other responsibilities of employers and employees, including the requirement that employers provide safety devices or safeguards reasonably necessary to render the employment safe.
This bill would require each general acute care hospital, as defined, to establish a patient protection and health care worker back injury prevention plan. This bill would require each hospital to conduct a needs assessment to identify patients needing lift teams, and lift, repositioning, or transfer devices.
This bill would require these hospitals to use lift teams, and lift, repositioning, and transfer devices, and to train health care workers on the appropriate use of lift, repositioning, and transfer devices. This bill would require lift team members to receive specialized training and to demonstrate proficiency in safe techniques for lifting, repositioning, or transferring patients and the appropriate use of lifting or transferring devices and equipment.
This bill would provide that a health care worker who refuses to lift a patient could be disciplined only if the worker has been trained on appropriate patient and equipment lifting procedures and has appropriate and functional lift, repositioning, or transfer devices available to perform the requested lift, repositioning, or transfer. |
|
|
|
Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
SB 456 by Senate Member Joe Simitian (D - Palo Alto). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee on March 26, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Senate Floor on June 7, 2007. Passed Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee on June 26, 2007. Passed Assembly Health Committee on July 3, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Assembly. |
|
| Description: |
|
SB 456 : Diacetyl
Existing law, the California Hazardous Substances Act, prohibits the manufacture, production, preparation, compounding, packing, selling, offering for sale, or keeping for sale within the State of California, of a package of a misbranded hazardous substance or banned hazardous substance.
This bill would prohibit, on and after June 1, 2008, a person from manufacturing, processing, or distributing in commerce a product containing diacetyl, except that this prohibition may be delayed, as prescribed. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
WORKERS' COMPENSATION ISSUES
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 54 by Assembly Member Mervyn Dymally (D - Los Angeles). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
WATCH |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 54 : Workers' compensation: acupuncture.
Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including acupuncture treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment.
Existing law requires the administrative director to adopt a medical treatment utilization schedule, as specified, that is required to address the frequency, duration, intensity, and appropriateness of all treatment procedures and modalities commonly performed in workers' compensation cases.
This bill would define acupuncture treatment to mean treatment based upon these guidelines or, prior to the adoption of these guidelines, the specified guidelines published by the Council of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Association and the Foundation for Acupuncture Research, including specified information. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 338 by Assembly Member Joe Coto (D - San Jose). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on April 11, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on June 6, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on July 11, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 338 : Workers' compensation: permanent disability.
Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law requires the payment of disability benefits to eligible individuals for injuries sustained in the course of employment that cause permanent disability, and specifies that the amount of those payments be computed in accordance with a prescribed formula. Existing law required the administrative director, on or before July 1, 2004, to present to the Governor recommendations on how to provide better access to funds paid to injured workers in light of the requirements of federal and state laws and regulations governing the negotiability of disability indemnity payments, and to make specific recommendations regarding payments to migratory and seasonal farmworkers.
This bill would delete that obsolete reporting requirement, and would require the administrative director, on or before July 1, 2008, to present to the Governor an evaluation of the benefits, if any, to injured workers as a result of the utilization of electronic funds transfers of funds owed to those injured workers. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 419 by Assembly Member Sally Lieber (D - Mountain View). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on April 11, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Commitee on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on June 4, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Placed in Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense file as of July 16, 2007. |
|
|
|
Description: |
|
AB 419 : Workers' compensation.
Existing law generally provides that whenever certain public employees who are members of the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System or subject to the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 are disabled, whether temporarily or permanently, by injury or illness arising out of and in the course of their duties, they shall become entitled, regardless of their period of service with the public employer, to a leave of absence while so disabled without loss of salary in lieu of temporary disability payments, for a period not exceeding one year.
This bill would, for purposes of these provisions, delete the requirement that these employees be members of the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System or subject to the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937. By increasing the duties of local officials with respect to the administration of this provision, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. |
|
|
|
Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 507 by Assembly Member Hector De La Torre (D - South Gate). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on April 25, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Commitee on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor (79 - 0) on June 5, 2007. In Senate Banking, Finance, and Insurance Committee as of July 2, 2007 and further hearing to be set. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 507 : Workers' compensation insurance: database.
Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in thecourse of, employment.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to create a publicly accessible database regarding workers' compensation insurance to enforce state workers' compensation laws. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 1212 by Assembly Member Fabian Nuñez (D - Los Angeles). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on April 25, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on June 6, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on July 11, 2007. Passed in Senate Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
| Description: |
|
AB 1212 : Workers' compensation: permanent disability
Existing law establishes a workers? compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers? Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law requires the payment of disability benefits to eligible individuals for injuries sustained in the course of employment that cause permanent disability, and specifies that the amount of those payments be computed in accordance with a prescribed formula.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would provide for enhanced disability benefits to compensate injured workers for lost wages incurred as a result of an injury arising out of, or in the course of, employment. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
AB 1636 by Assembly Member Tony Mendoza (D - Artesia). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on April 25, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriates on May 23, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 29, 2007. Passed Senate Labor & Industrial Relations Committee on July 11, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on August 30, 2007. Passed Senate on September 7, 2007. Vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger on October 12, 2007. Click here to see the veto message. |
|
| Description: |
|
SB 1636 : Workers' compensation: supplemental job displacement
benefits.
AB 1636 would do the following:
- Require that supplemental job displacement benefits (SJDBs) be
provided no later than 74 days after the termination of the
temporary disability benefits.
- Require an employer, if the percentage of permanent disability
cannot be determined, to provide a voucher based on the
reasonable estimate of the percentage of permanent disability.
- Require the employer, if the percentage of permanent
disability is later determined to be higher than that estimate,
to provide the additional voucher immediately upon determining
the correct percentage of permanent disability.
- Require an employer to notify the employee of the
determination of the percentage of permanent disability and of
any delay in determining the correct percentage of permanent
disability benefits. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
| BILL & Author: |
|
SB 154 by Senate Member Gil Cedillo (D - Los Angeles). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
| Position: |
|
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on March 28, 2007. Currently held in Senate Appropriations and is under submission. |
|
| Description: |
|
SB 154 : Workers' compensation: temporary disability: public safety personnel.
Existing workers' compensation law generally requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment.
Existing law prohibits aggregate disability payments for a single injury occurring on or after April 19, 2004, causing temporary disability from extending for more than 104 compensable weeks within a period of 2 years from the date of commencement of temporary disability payment, except if an employee suffers from certain injuries or conditions.
This bill would provide that the 2-year limit on the payment of temporary disability shall not apply to certain volunteer and paid law enforcement and firefighting employees, as specified. |
|
| Action: |
|
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
SB 352 by Senate Member Alex Padilla (D - Pacoima). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on March 28, 2007. Currently held in Senate Appropriations and is under submission. |
|
|
| Description: |
SB 352 : Workers' compensation: medical treatment utilization schedule.
Existing workers' compensation law requires employers to secure the payment of workers' compensation, including medical treatment, for injuries incurred by their employees that arise out of, or in the course of, employment. Existing law requires the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation to adopt a medical treatment utilization schedule, containing specified guidelines covering the extent and scope of medical treatment to be provided to an injured employee. Existing law specifies that, notwithstanding the medical treatment utilization schedule or other specified medicalpractice guidelines, for injuries occurring on and after January 1, 2004, an employee is entitled to no more than 24 chiropractic, 24occupational therapy, and 24 physical therapy visits per industrial injury, except when an employer authorizes, in writing, additional visits to a health care practitioner for physical medicine services.
This bill would exempt from the above-described limits on chiropractic, occupational therapy, and physical therapy visitsspecified employees of a sheriff's office or police or fire department, peace officers, and active firefighters. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
|
BILL & Author: |
SB 936 by Senate Member Don Perata (D - Oakland). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on May 9, 2007. Passed Senate on June 4, 2007. Passed Assembly Insurance Committee on July 3, 2007. Passed Assembly on September 10, 2007. Vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger on October 12, 2007. Click here to see the veto message. |
|
|
| Description: |
SB 936: Workers' compensation: permanent disability schedule
Increases the number of weeks that permanent disability (PD) benefits are paid, thereby increasing the amount of money received for each percent of disability.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Declares legislative intent that the 2003 and 2004 workers' compensation reforms were intended to be fair to all parties involved and that the Legislature should ensure that PD workers receive adequate compensation.
2) Increases the number of weeks that PD benefits are paid in each of the next three years, resulting in a doubling of benefits by the third year increase. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
IMMIGRANT WORKERS' RIGHTS ISSUES
LABOR STANDARDS ISSUES
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 377 by Assembly Member Juan Arambula (D - Fresno). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment Committee on April 18, 2006. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 2, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on May 21, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 377 : Labor contractors
Existing law requires an employer to furnish each employee with an accurate itemized statement showing, among other things, the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer. Existing law provides that a knowing and intentional violation of this provision is a misdemeanor.
This bill would require an employer who is a farm labor contractor, as defined, to disclose in the itemized statement the name and address of the legal entity that secured the employer's services. In addition, this bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters)
|
|
|BILL & Author: |
AB 448 by Assembly Member Juan Arambula (D - Fresno). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Labor & Employment Committee on May 2, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 21, 2007. Passed Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 27, 2007. Passed on September 4, 2007 in Senate. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 448 : Compensation recovery actions: liquidated damages
Existing law authorizes the Labor Commissioner to investigate employee complaints and to provide for a hearing in any action to recover wages, penalties, and other demands for compensation and to determine all matters arising under his or her jurisdiction.
This bill would permit employees to recover liquidated damages in complaints brought before the Labor Commission alleging payment of less than the state minimum wage. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
ENVIRONMENT & TOXICS ISSUES
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 513 by Assembly Member Sally Lieber (D - Mountain View). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee on April 10, 2007. Failed Assembly Floor on June 7, 2007. Reconsideration of the bill was granted. Filed as inactive. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 513 : PBDE: Prohibition
Existing law prohibits a person from manufacturing, processing, as defined, or distributing in commerce a product, or a flame-retarded part of a product, containing more than 1?10 of 1% pentaBDE or octaBDE, except for products containing small quantities of PBDEs that are produced or used for scientific research on the health or environmental effects of PBDEs.
This bill would additionally include DecaBDE in this prohibition, on and after January 1, 2011. The bill would also delete the exemption for products containing small quantities of PBDEs that are produced or used for scientific research on the health or environmental effects of PBDEs. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 1530 by Assembly Member Sally Lieber (D - Mountain View). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on June 6, 2007. Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee on July 2, 2007. Failed Senate Health Committee on July 11, 2007, but reconsideration granted. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 1530 : Pesticide Poisoning |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
SB 578 by Senate Member Joe Simitian (D - Palo Alto). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Environmental Quality Committee on April 23, 2007. Placed in Senate Appropriations Suspense File as of May 14, 2007. |
|
|
| Description: |
SB 578 : Environment: high production volume chemical
Existing law authorizes the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal-EPA) to request a business to submit the information required to be submitted in the toxic chemical release form pursuant to the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA).
This bill would require a manufacturer of a chemical that is manufactured in, or imported into, the United States in an amount equal to, or greater than, 1,000,000 pound per year (high production volume chemical) to provide to the Department of Toxic Substances Control according to a specified schedule, the chemical's physiochemical, toxicological, and ecotoxicological information, identification of industry sectors that purchase more than 5% of these chemicals, and, of those industry sectors, identification of industry sectors whose products are likely to be exposed to human. A high production volume chemical would be prohibited from being manufactured, imported, or used in the state, if the manufacturer fails to provide the required information. The department would be required to make available to the public all the information provided by a manufacturer regarding the high production volume chemical. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
SB 775 by Senate Member Mark Ridley-Thomas (D - Los Angeles). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
WATCH
STATUS NOTE: Passed Senate Health Committee on April 18, 2007. Passed Senate Appropriations Committee on May 31, 2007. Passed Senate Floor on June 7, 2007. To be heard in Assembly Health Committee on TBA - July 3rd hearing cancelled at request of author. |
|
|
| Description: |
SB 775 : Childhood lead poisoning
Existing law, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act of 1991, requires the State Department of Health Services to adopt regulations establishing a standard of care, at least as stringent as the most recent United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blood lead level screening guidelines, whereby all children are required to be evaluated for risk of lead poisoning by health care providers during each child's periodic health assessment. These provisions are to be implemented only to the extent there are sufficient fees collected from certain manufacturers and persons who significantly contributed or currently contribute or both to environmental lead contamination.
Existing law also establishes a Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention program within the department. Under the program, a laboratory that performs a blood lead analysis on a specimen of human blood drawn in the state is required to report prescribed information to the department on every person tested. Notwithstanding this requirement, the act provides the department with the authority to, among other things, develop protocols to be utilized in screening the level of lead in blood and procedures for changing the protocols when more accurate or efficienttechnologies become available. Effective July 1, 2007, the duties of the department will be transferred to the State Department of Public Health.
This bill would revise the information to be reported by the laboratory, as specified. The bill would require the department to distribute to all health care providers that administer perinatal care services informational materials about lead, as specified, and would require providers to give this information to pregnant women.
Existing law prohibits the governing authority of a school or other institution from unconditionally admitting any person as a pupil of any private or public elementary or secondary school, child care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day care home, or development center unless he or she has been fully immunized against various diseases. Existing law requires the governing board of each school district to exclude from school, for not more than 5 days any first grade pupil who has not provided either a prescribed certificate that the child has received health screening and evaluation services or a waiver.
This bill would, on and after July 1, 2008, prohibit the above-described governing authority from unconditionally admitting any person as a pupil of any private or public elementary or secondary school, child care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day care home, or development center, unless the pupil has been assessed for risk of exposure to lead.
The bill would require a licensed health care provider to conduct the assessment by presenting to the child's parent, guardian, or caretaker relative specified questions adopted by the department in order to determine whether the child has been exposed to lead. By imposing new duties upon local officials, this bill would create a state mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
LEGAL SERVICES ISSUES
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 171 by Assembly Member Jim Beall (D - San Jose). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Higher Education Committee on March 27. Passed Assembly Appropriations Committee on April 18, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on May 3, 2007. Passed Senate ED. on June 13, 2007. August 30, 2007 hearing cancelled at request of author. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 171 : Student financial aid: Assumption Program for Loans for Law in the Public Interest
Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. Existing law establishes the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program, under the administration of the commission, as a student loan repayment program for licensed attorneys who practice or agree to practice in public interest areas of the law, as defined to include service at a local legal services organization, prosecuting attorney's office, child support agency office, or criminal public defender's office, and who meet other designated criteria. Under the program, the commission is authorized to make 3,000 awards of loan assumption annually, and participants are eligible for a maximum of $11,000 in loan assistance for 4 years of service as a public interest attorney, as specified.
This bill would additionally include service in a county counsel's office as service that would qualify a participant for loan repayment under the program. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 467 by Assembly Member Mike Feuer (D - Los Angeles). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 24, 2007. Passed Assembly Appropriations on May 9, 2007. Passed Assembly on May 17, 2007. Passed Senate Judiciary Committee on June 26, 2007. Awaiting third reading in Senate. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 467 : Courts: Access to Justice
Existing law requires the Judicial Council to adopt rules of court, among other things, for litigants proceeding in forma pauperis and for regulating the selection of appointed counsel to handle criminal appeals by indignant defendants, as specified.
This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to access to the courts for those person unable to pay court fees. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
|
BILL & Author: |
AB 1723 by Assembly Member Dave Jones(D - Sacramento). Click here to see the page that lists the versions of the bill and actions taken in the Legislature. Click here to see the original version of the bill. |
|
|
| Position: |
SUPPORT
STATUS NOTE: Passed Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 24, 2007. Passed Assembly Floor on May 14, 2007. Passed by Senate Judiciary on June 26, 2007. Concurrence in Senate amendments on September 4, 2007. To enrollment. |
|
|
| Description: |
AB 1723 : Attorneys: interest on lawyer trust accounts
Existing law, the State Bar Act, provides for the licensing and regulation of the practice of law by the State Bar of California. Existing law requires an attorney or law firm that receives or disburses trust funds to establish an interest bearing demand trust account and to deposit in the account all client deposits that are nominal in amount or are on deposit for a short period of time. Existing law requires that the earnings from these trust accounts be paid to the State Bar to be used for programs for free legal services for indigent persons.
This bill would instead require that the above funds be deposited in interest on lawyer trust accounts, and would also require that the dividends earned on the accounts be paid to the State Bar of California. |
|
|
| Action: |
Click here for action (fact sheets, model letters, WORKSAFE! letters) |
2004 - 2005 Archives
2003 - 2004 Archives nbsp; sp; nbsp; nbsp; sp; p; sp;
 Printer-Friendly Page
|
|
|
|
