BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 155 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 155 (Alejo) As Amended May 29, 2013 Majority vote LABOR & EMPLOYMENT 5-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Roger Hernández, Alejo, | | | | |Chau, Gomez, Holden | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Page 2 (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 AB 155 Page 3 records on the employer's premises, or both." Analysis Prepared by : Ben Ebbink / L. & E. / (916) 319-2091 FN: 0001017