SB 100 – 100% Renewable Energy Portfolio This law commits California to using 100 percent renewable energy (called the state’s “Renewal Energy Portfolio”) by December 31, 2045. It prematurely increases and accelerates our previous targets of 50% by December 31, 2030. The infrastructure for a 100% renewable energy grid does not currently exist and is very expensive. The cost to build and maintain this new infrastructure will inevitably be paid by energy ratepayers.
SB 822 - Net Neutrality This law is also called the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018. This law prohibits fixed and mobile internet service providers that provide broadband internet access service from engaging in certain actions concerning the treatment of internet traffic such as slowing down or prioritizing internet bandwidth speed. By mandating this change, this law opens the door extensive state regulation of internet service providers and will discourage innovation of California’s internet companies and startups.
SB 820 - Confidentiality Clauses in Settlement Agreements
where sexual harassment, assault or discrimination has been alleged from including a confidentiality provision that prohibits disclosure of factual information regarding the claim, except the accuser’s identity.
CA Supreme Court Dynamex Decision – Independent Contractors This is not a new law, but a new State Supreme Court decision that changes the way independent contractors are defined. Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court adopted the “ABC Test” to determine whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor. Previously, independent contractors were classified using the “Borello Test” for deciding whether a worker was an independent contractor which weighed multiple factors to account for the variety of California industries and professions. The Dynamex ruling replaced the multiple factors with a one-size-fits-all approach consisting of just three restrictive factors called the ABC Test. Under the ABC Test, a worker will be deemed to have been “suffered or permitted to work,” and thus, an employee for wage order purposes, unless the employer proves:
A. The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the
the contract for the performance of the work both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact.
B. The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business. C. The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed. By narrowing the number of workers qualifying as independent contractors under certain laws, the decision impacts “gig economy” workers such as rideshare drivers, childcare workers, hairstylists, freelance designers and even doctors.
Legislative Debrief The California Chamber of Commerce, the largest broad-based business advocacy group in California, compiled a list of bills that it calls “job killers.” Recently, the group boasted that all 29 bills that received its economic scarlet letter in 2018 had fizzled, with most failing in the Legislature and the rest vetoed by Brown, as has been his tendency regarding chamber-opposed bills over the years. For perspective, on the amount of laws that have passed this year, Governor Jerry Brown has signed 1,016 bills into law with most of them taking effect on Jan 1st of 2019.
This new law expands the types of cases in which so-called “secret settlements” are restricted. It prohibits any settlement agreement in a case performance of the work, both under
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