Employee Rights

AB 22 (Mendoza) - Oppose Unless Amended
As Amended on March 8, 2011

AB 22, by Assembly Member Tony Mendoza, would prohibit prospective employers from using consumer credit reports for employment purposes unless the following criteria are met:

• the information in the credit report is substanitally job-related (i.e., the applicant has access to money, trade secrets or confidential information.
• the position is managerial, a position in the state Department of Justice, a sworn peace officer or other law enforcement position.
• the credit report is required by law.

The previous version of AB 22 exempted positions in a city or county, but recent amendments removed this exemption. CSAC has taken an Oppose Unless Amended position and has requested the author place the exemption back into the bill.

AB 22 will be heard on Tuesday, March 22 in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Compensation Transparency

SB 46 (Correa) – Concerns
As amended on March 7, 2011

SB 46, by Senator Lou Correa, would require specified public officials who file a statement of economic interest, to annually file a compensation disclosure form. The form would be developed by the State Controller and filed with the same office that receives the public official’s statement of economic interest. Alternatively, if a public agency maintains a website, it can compile and post the information from the compensation disclosure form for each of its public officials.

SB 46 requires the compensation disclosure form to include the cost to the public agency to provide:

• the public official’s annual salary or stipend and benefits.
• any reimbursement payments made to the public official  for actual and necessary expenses incurred on behalf of the local agency.
• any monetary or nonmonetary perquisites of office paid to the public official.
• any amounts received by a public official for their membership or employment with any other public agency.

The Controller, on or before January 1, 2012, must recommend to the Governor and the Legislautre methods for compiling the information from the compensation disclosure forms in one or more publicly accessible databases. SB 46 also requires the Bureau of State Audits to report to the Governor and Legislature, on or before January 1, 2018 on the effectiveness of these requirements.

SB 46 will be heard on March 16 in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

State Attorneys Union Reaches Tentative Labor Agreement

The California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) reports reaching a tentative agreement with Governor Jerry Brown to reduce pension formulas for new employees and increase employee pension contributions. Among other things, the agreement (which is similar to the deal reached by Governor Schwarzenegger with SEIU Local 1000 state employees last October):

• for new employees hired after January 15, 2011, reduces their pension formula to two percent at age 60.
• eliminates two paid holidays (Lincoln and Columbus Days).
• increases employee pension contribution rates by three percent.

This agreement covers roughly 3,700 members.

EDD Expands E-Services Offerings 

We reported in The CSAC Bulletin last October that the California Employment Development Department (EDD) would start requiring certain reports quarterly, beginning in January 2011.

EDD announced on Tuesday its launch of expanded e-Services on March 1, which will allow employers to conduct ore transactions online, including:

• viewing account information.
• paying tax deposits and liabilities.
• filing reports, including the Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (DE 9 and DE 9C).

Current EDD e-Services users will need to re-enroll to receive a username and password for the expanded services. For more information, click here.