Pension Conference Committee Holds Fourth Hearing

The Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions held its fourth meeting on Tuesday in Sacramento to examine the impact of Governor Brown’s proposal to increase the normal retirement age for public employees.

Counties will recall that AB 340, by Assembly Member Warren Furutani, was amended last September to state legislative intent to convene a conference committee for the purpose of crafting comprehensive pension reform legislation. The Committee is made up of Assembly Members Michael Allen, Warren Furutani (Chair) and Beth Gaines and Senators Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Joseph Simitian and Mimi Walters, first met on October 26 in an informational hearing to address the current condition of public employee benefits and reform efforts. The Committee met again in another informational hearing on December 1 to discuss in detail Governor Brown’s pension reform plan and in January to review Governor Brown’s proposal to create a mandatory hybrid pension plan for new employees.

The Committee heard testimony from Ron Snell, from the National Conference of State Legislatures, who provided information on other states that had increased normal retirement ages; Ann Boynton from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) opined that raising retirement ages could reduce overall savings for new members and would impact healthcare premiums in the CalPERS pool since members would use the CalPERS plan in place of Medicare; Ed Derman of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System provided feedback from the perspective of that retirement system, stating that raising retirement ages could cause a decrease in benefits and a significant reduction in the standard of living; finally, the Chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research discussed how raising retirement ages would disproportionately affect members of different races, income and educational level. 

CSAC will keep you apprised of the Committee’s further actions.

Workers’ Compensation

AB 1845 (Solorio) – Request for Comment
As Introduced February 22, 2012

Assembly Bill 1845, by Assembly Member Jose Solorio, would require that assessments for overpaid unemployment compensation benefits be deposited into both the Benefit Audit Fund and the Unemployment Fund. Current law requires unemployment compensation benefits that have been overpaid because the individual receiving the benefits either made a false statement or representation or withheld facts be deposited into the Benefit Audit Fund. The employer is then reimbursed from the Benefit Audit Fund.

AB 1845 would instead require the overpaid benefit assessments be deposited as follows: 50 percent into the Benefit Audit Fund and 50 percent into the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

AB 1845 is currently awaiting assignment to a policy committee.

Employment

AB 1740 (Perez, V.) – Request for Comment
As Introduced February 17, 2012

Assembly Bill 1740, by Assembly Member V. Manuel Perez, would expand California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which currently prohibits employers from denying an individual’s right to seek, obtain and hold employment based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, age or sexual orientation.

AB 1740 would expand the bases on which such discrimination is prohibited under FEHA to include a person’s status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. The bill further expands what reasonable accommodations an employer must make for such victims, including transfer, reassignment, a modified schedule, changed work station and/or telephone, and assistance in documenting domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

AB 1740 is currently awaiting assignment to a policy committee.

AB 1999 (Brownley) – Request for Comment
As introduced February 23, 2012

Assembly Bill 1999, by Assembly Member Julia Brownley, also seeks to expand California’s FEHA by including “familial status” as a basis upon which an employer cannot discriminate with regard to the individual’s right to seek, obtain and hold employment.

The bill defines “familial status” as being an individual who is, will be or perceived to be a family caregiver and specifies family as: a child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild.

AB 1999 is awaiting assignment to a policy committee.

AB 1844 (Campos) – Request for Comment
As introduced February 22, 2012

Assembly Bill 1844, by Assembly Member Nora Campos, would provide that if an employer has not searched or monitored the social media of a potential employee to determine if he or she is unfit or incompetent, that employer has not engaged in negligent hiring. Negligent hiring is defined in statute as when an employer brings in a new employee without exercising reasonable care in hiring the worker to discover whether he or she was unfit or incompetent and the employee causes harm to a second employee. AB 1844 also would prohibit an employer from requiring an employee or prospective employee to disclose a user name or account password to his or her social media site.

AB 1844 is currently awaiting assignment to a policy committee.