BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 155
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 155 (Alejo)
As Amended May 29, 2013
Majority vote
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT 5-0
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|Ayes:|Roger Hern�ndez, Alejo, | | |
| |Chau, Gomez, Holden | | |
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| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Provides that a current or former employee has a right
to receive a copy of their payroll records. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Provides that an employee shall elect to inspect or copy the
payroll records, or to receive a copy of the records, or any
combination thereof.
2)Specifies that a former employee terminated for workplace
violence or harassment shall be entitled only to receive a
copy of the records.
3)Provides that an employer may charge the current or former
employee the actual costs of production, as defined.
4)Makes related legislative findings and declarations.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : According to the author, this bill "ensures that
employees have the right to receive a copy of their employment
records upon a reasonable request to his or her employer. The
bill merely clarifies existing law under the Labor Code and
corrects a flawed court decision. It is vitally important that
employees have access to their records for purposes of future
employment and for documenting a history of work in the United
States for immigration purposes."
Labor Code (LC) Section 226 requires employers to provide
itemized wage statements and to maintain specified payroll
records. In 1988, LC Section 226 was amended by SB 2155
AB 155
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(Petris), Chapter 827, to change the pre-existing right of
workers to "inspect" their payroll records by recasting it as a
right to "inspect or copy." SB 2155 also provided that if the
employer provides copies of the records, the actual cost of
reproduction may be charged to the current or former employee.
According to the sponsor of this bill, the California Rural
Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF), for more than 20 years
California courts uniformly interpreted this statute to provide
for employee access to "copies" of payroll records. However, in
late 2012, a Riverside County Superior Court held otherwise in
Esteban v. JSO, Inc. dba America's Labor Supply, Inc., Docket
No. INC-1104544. In that case, the superior court stated,
"Plaintiff contends that this section obligates an employer to
make copies. It does not. The plain language of the section
obligates an employer to make records available for the employee
to inspect and copy?If the Legislature wanted to require an
employer to copy records on request, it could easily have said
so."
According to CRLAF, this decision was "unjustifiable" in light
of the legislative history of SB 2155. The context of the
passage of SB 2155 (which was an urgency statute) was to enable
California workers to get copies of their records in order to
qualify for legalization under the 1986 Immigration Reform and
Control Act, which, among other things, required proof of prior
and current work history in the United States. This purpose is
reflected in the legislative history of SB 2155, which is quoted
extensively in the legislative findings of this bill. CRLAF
contends that the current proposed federal immigration
legislation underscores the need for the clarification proposed
by this bill. A central tenet of these proposals is that
undocumented workers, in order to qualify, must be able to
"demonstrate a history of work in the United States, and current
employment, among other requirements..."
Therefore, CRLAF states that the narrow purpose of this bill is
to eliminate confusion about the right of California workers to
inspect or receive a copy of their itemized wage statements upon
reasonable request to their current or former employer.
A coalition of employer groups, including the California Chamber
of Commerce, opposes this bill because it "mandates that it is
within the employee's discretion as to whether the employee
receives a copy of his/her payroll records, inspects the payroll
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records on the employer's premises, or both."
Analysis Prepared by : Ben Ebbink / L. & E. / (916) 319-2091
FN: 0001017