The California Legislature has enacted a number of new laws that will impact employers and employees in 2016. In eight installments, Kronick will provide you with helpful summaries by category. The seventh and eigth installments cover legislation affecting Public Works and the Private Attorney General Act.
VII. Public Works
A. AB 852 (Burke): Expanded Definition of Public Works
This bill adds section 1720.7 to the Labor Code. The new code section expands the definition of a public work on which prevailing wages must be paid to include any construction, alteration, demolition, or repair work done on a general acute care hospital pursuant to a private contract when the project is paid for, in whole or in part, with the proceeds of conduit revenue bonds.
VIII. Private Attorney General Act
A. AB 1506 (Hernández): Labor Code PAGA Claims Regarding Noncompliant Pay Stubs
This bill amends the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, Labor Code section 2699, et seq.
These revised code sections would give an employer the right to cure any failure to comply with the requirement that itemized wage statements contain the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer and the inclusive dates of the pay period. To demonstrate it had cured any failure to comply with these pay stub requirements, the employer would have to show it had provided compliant itemized wage statements to employees for each pay period for the three-year period prior to the date of the written PAGA notice. An employer would be entitled to cure this specific non-compliance with pay stub requirements only once in a 12-month period. If the employer successfully cured the non-compliance, the complaining employee(s) would be barred from bringing a PAGA suit for that specific violation of the pay stub requirements.
The bill was adopted as an urgency measure, which means it took effect immediately upon being chaptered into law.