BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair AB 1999 (Brownley) - Employment: family caregiver status protection. Amended: April 30, 2012 Policy Vote: Judiciary 3-1 Urgency: No Mandate: Yes Hearing Date: August 6, 2012 Consultant: Bob Franzoia This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: AB 1999 would amend employment provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to prohibit discrimination based on the family caregiver status of an employee. Fiscal Impact: Estimated $140,000 annually to the General Fund to investigate employment discrimination complaints filed with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Background: The FEHA protects persons against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodation, and business services based on specified personal characteristics. These characteristics include sex, race, color, national origin, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, age and disability. Proposed Law: This bill adds family caregiver status to the list of protected classes with respect to employment discrimination. For purposes of the employment sections of the FEHA, family caregiver status refers to an employee's responsibility for care or support of a family member. Related Legislation: AB 1001 (Skinner) 2009 proposed including "familial status" as an additional basis upon which the right to seek, obtain, and hold employment cannot be denied. That bill would, for employment purposes, define "familial status" as having or providing care for a child, domestic partner, grandchild, grandparent, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, or spouse. AB 1001 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The estimated fiscal impact of that bill was up to $740,000 annually from the General Fund. AB 1999 (Brownley) Page 1 Staff Comments: A study by The Center for Worklife Law, Caregivers as a Protected Class? noted that at least 26 family responsibilities discrimination jurisdictions authorize a private right of action whereby an employee who believes he or she has experienced familial status discrimination at work may seek relief in court. About two-thirds of these jurisdictions allow the employee to go directly to court without exhausting any administrative requirements or in addition to pursuing an administrative process. The remaining jurisdictions require exhaustion of some administrative process before the employee can seek relief in court. The administrative requirement may be as simple as filing a certified compliant and obtaining a right to sue letter. This analysis estimates the DFEH will have annual costs of $138,750 to add 1.5 personnel years ($62,500 for salary and $29,600 benefits for a total of $92,500) to investigate additional complaints (170) anticipated to be filed if this bill is enacted. This estimate is significantly lower than estimates for SB 836 (Kuehl) 2007 or AB 1001 (Skinner) 2009 because the DFEH has implemented case processing innovations and is currently transitioning to a cloud based electronic case management system that have significantly reduced caseloads and made case processing much more efficient. Additionally, this bill is much narrower in scope than the above noted bills. The 170 additional complaints estimated to be filed annually will generate investigations but are not anticipated to generate significant prosecution. Regardless of protected basis or alleged harm, most complaints filed for investigation do not reach the DFEH's legal division because the investigations are settled or closed for lack of merit.