BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 836| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: SB 836 Author: Kuehl (D) Amended: 4/12/07 Vote: 21 SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 4-1, 4/24/07 AYES: Corbett, Harman, Kuehl, Steinberg NOES: Ackerman SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SUBJECT : Fair employment: familial status SOURCE : Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center Equal Rights Advocates State of California Commission on the Status of Women DIGEST : This bill adds familial status to the list of characteristic (i.e., race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age or sexual orientation) that are prohibited bases of discrimination under the employment provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act. ANALYSIS : Existing law, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental CONTINUED SB 836 Page 2 disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, or sexual orientation. [Government Code Sec. 12920 et seq. All references are to the Government Code unless otherwise indicated.] This bill adds "familial status" to the list of characteristics on which basis a person may not be discriminated against in employment. This bill defines "familial status" in this context to include "being an individual who is or who will be caring for or supporting a family member." This bill defines "caring for or supporting" a family member as providing supervision or transportation; providing psychological or emotional comfort and support; addressing medical, educational, nutritional, hygienic or safety needs; or attending to an illness, injury or mental or physical disability. This bill defines "family member" as a child, a parent, a spouse, a domestic partner, a parent-in-law, a sibling, a grandparent or a grandchild, as defined in various statutes. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 5/21/07) 9to5 Bay Area Amalgamated Transit Union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) AFSME Retirees, Chapter 36 American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO Association of California Caregiver Resource Centers Berkeley Federation of Teachers California Alliance for Retired Americans California Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) California Coalition for Caregivers California Conference of Machinists CONTINUED SB 836 Page 3 California Federation of Teachers California Labor Federation California Nurses Association California School Employees Association California State Employees Association California Teachers Association (CTA) California Teamsters California Women's Law Center Central Labor Council of Alameda County, AFL-CIO Commission on the Status of Women, State of California (co-sponsor) Communications Workers of America (CWA) CWA, Local Union 9410 Engineers and Scientists of California, IFPTE Local 20 Equal Rights Advocates (co-sponsor) Family Caregiver Alliance Golden Gate University, School of Law - Women's Employment Rights Clinic Honoring Emancipated Youth International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, ATE Lodge 1781 International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21 Labor Project for Working Families Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center (co-sponsor) Mothers & More North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO Office & Professional Employees International Union, Local 29 Office & Professional Employees International Union, Local 3 Parent Voices San Mateo County Central Labor Council Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California State Council SEIU Local 1000 SEIU Local 1021 SEIU Local 1877 Strategic Committee of Public Employees, Laborers' International Union of North America Teamsters Transgender Law Center UNITE HERE! United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Western States CONTINUED SB 836 Page 4 Council Warehouse Union Local 6, ILWU OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/21/07) CalCahmber ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office states, although discrimination based on "familial status" is explicitly prohibited under the housing provisions of the FEHA, the same is not true under the employment provisions. Presently, the FEHA does not adequately and explicitly protect California workers from being discriminated against at work based on their familial status. Yet research shows that employees are regularly discriminated against because of "familial status." ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Chamber of Commerce state that, "We oppose SB 836 (Kuehl), as amended for the following reasons, first this bill is unnecessary, combined federal and state laws already provide extensive family care protections for employees. Under these laws, it is possible for an employee to take many months of full or modified leave time for a family member's illness or pregnancy. The number and rate of successful suits under these laws shows they provide more than sufficient protections. According to a study by the UC Hastings Center for Worklife Law, under federal law alone, the number of lawsuits alleging "family responsibility discrimination" has increased nearly 400 percent more in the past decade than the prior decade. Moreover, employees win about half the case currently filed under federal and state family statutes, a rate considered unusually high. "Second, this bill will invite frivolous litigation. The Fair Employment and Housing Act automatically awards attorneys' fees to a prevailing plaintiff, though the threshold for filing a lawsuit is low. This imbalance in the law is a magnet for frivolous lawsuits. Employees hiring attorneys' on a contingency fee basis pay nothing to initiate a frivolous suit, but employers who successfully defend these cases are still left to pay all of their own attorneys' fees. Since almost every employee has a spouse, child, parent, or sibling that might nee supervision or CONTINUED SB 836 Page 5 transportation, "famililial status" can serve as a new, easy form of discrimination to allege. "Finally, this bill may result in burdensome expanded leave rights. SB 836 appears to be the first step in a broader agenda to expand employee family care leave. Under current law, employers must provide extensive modified schedules or full-time leave for purpose of family medical situtations. SB 836 appears to open the door to new mandates on employers to provide modified schedules or leave to accommodate babysitting or driving children to soccer practice. Currently, employees can be held accountable if their work performance is negatively impacted by too much missed work due, for example, to extended daycare issues. Although proponents of the bill claim that SB 836 is not intended to expand leave rights to these situations, we believe the bill significantly opens door for them." RJB:do 5/21/07 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED