There are a host of new employment laws coming into effect in 2015.

In this three-part series we've called out the laws & regs that are likely to have the greatest impact on employers and give you a brief summary of what to expect.

Here we address the new Employee Protection laws for 2015.

In Part 1 we covered the new laws that will affect leaves of absence, background checks and workplace safety.

In Part 3 we will talk about the increased wage-and-hour obligations for employers in 2015.

Remember that we are here to help. If you have questions or concerns about any of the new employment laws, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Employee Protections

Protections for Unpaid Interns and Volunteers. AB 1443 adds unpaid interns and volunteers to the list of individuals protected from harassment under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).

Nondiscrimination: Driver's Licenses for Undocumented Persons. AB 1660 makes it a violation of FEHA for an employer to discriminate against an individual because he/she holds or presents a driver's license issued to undocumented persons who can submit satisfactory proof of identity and California residency. These driver's licenses are scheduled to start being issued on January 1, 2015.

Immigration-Related Protections. AB 2751 expands the definition of an unfair immigration-related practice to include threatening to file or filing a false report or complaint with any state or federal agency. Current law extended the protection only to reports filed with the police.

Prohibition of Discrimination Against Public Assistance Recipients: Public Reports. AB 1792 prohibits discrimination and retaliation against employees receiving public assistance, which is defined as meaning the Medi-Cal program.

Harassment Prevention Training: Prevention of Abusive Conduct. AB 2053 requires employers that are subject to the mandatory sexual harassment prevention training requirement for supervisors to include a component on the prevention of "abusive conduct," beginning January 1, 2015. "Abusive conduct" is specifically defined by the new law. See our earlier post for more on this.

Harassment Prevention Training: Farm Labor Contractors. SB 1087 imposes specific sexual harassment prevention training requirements on farm labor contractors, including a yearly training requirement for supervisory employees and training for non-supervisory employees at the time of hire and every two years thereafter. The required content for the training is not as involved as AB 1825 training.

In the final installment of this series, we will cover the new Wage-and-Hour-related laws.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Read the Series:

Employer Briefing: New Laws For 2015, Part 1 (Leaves of absence, background checks and workplace safety)

Employer Briefing: New Laws For 2015, Part 2 (Employee protections)

Employer Briefing: New Laws For 2015, Part 3 (Wage and hour)

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