BILL NUMBER: AB 519 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Logue
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
An act to amend Section 512 of the Labor
17206 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to
employment unfair competition .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 519, as amended, Logue. Working hours: meal periods.
Unfair competition.
Existing law makes a person who engages in unfair competition, as
defined, liable for civil penalties. Existing law requires a court,
in assessing the amount of the civil penalty, to consider one or more
of specified relevant circumstances presented by any of the parties
to the case.
This bill would additionally require the court, prior to the
imposition of any civil penalty, to consider all factors in
mitigation of both the imposition and amount of any civil penalty.
Existing law, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits an employer
from requiring an employee to work more than 5 hours per day without
providing a meal period and, notwithstanding that provision,
authorizes the Industrial Welfare Commission to adopt a working
condition order permitting a meal period to commence after 6 hours of
work if the commission determines the order is consistent with the
health and welfare of affected employees. Existing law exempts
employees in certain occupations from these provisions.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the
above provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 17206 of the
Business and Professions Code is amended to read:
17206. Civil Penalty for Violation of Chapter
(a) Any person who engages, has engaged, or proposes to engage in
unfair competition shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed
two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each violation, which
shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name
of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General, by
any district attorney, by any county counsel authorized by agreement
with the district attorney in actions involving violation of a
county ordinance, by any city attorney of a city having a population
in excess of 750,000, by any city attorney of any city and county,
or, with the consent of the district attorney, by a city prosecutor
in any city having a full-time city prosecutor, in any court of
competent jurisdiction.
(b) The court shall impose a civil penalty for each violation of
this chapter. In assessing the amount of the civil penalty, the court
shall consider any one or more of the relevant circumstances
presented by any of the parties to the case, including, but not
limited to, the following: the nature and seriousness of the
misconduct, the number of violations, the persistence of the
misconduct, the length of time over which the misconduct occurred,
the willfulness of the defendant's misconduct, and the defendant's
assets, liabilities, and net worth. Prior to the imposition of
any civil penalty, the court shall consider all factors in mitigation
of both the imposition and amount of any civil penalty, including,
but not limited to, the magnitude of any actual harm to persons, the
reasonable efforts taken by the defendant to prevent any actual harm
to persons, and efforts undertaken by the defendant to
remediate or prevent future actual harm to persons.
(c) If the action is brought by the Attorney General, one-half of
the penalty collected shall be paid to the treasurer of the county in
which the judgment was entered, and one-half to the General Fund. If
the action is brought by a district attorney or county counsel, the
penalty collected shall be paid to the treasurer of the county in
which the judgment was entered. Except as provided in subdivision
(e), if the action is brought by a city attorney or city prosecutor,
one-half of the penalty collected shall be paid to the treasurer of
the city in which the judgment was entered, and one-half to the
treasurer of the county in which the judgment was entered. The
aforementioned funds shall be for the exclusive use by the Attorney
General, the district attorney, the county counsel, and the city
attorney for the enforcement of consumer protection laws.
(d) The Unfair Competition Law Fund is hereby created as a special
account within the General Fund in the State Treasury. The portion
of penalties that is payable to the General Fund or to the Treasurer
recovered by the Attorney General from an action or settlement of a
claim made by the Attorney General pursuant to this chapter or
Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 17500) of Part 3 shall be
deposited into this fund. Moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by
the Legislature, shall be used by the Attorney General to support
investigations and prosecutions of California's consumer protection
laws, including implementation of judgments obtained from such
prosecutions or investigations and other activities which are in
furtherance of this chapter or Chapter 1 (commencing with Section
17500) of Part 3. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government
Code, any civil penalties deposited in the fund pursuant to the
National Mortgage Settlement, as provided in Section 12531 of the
Government Code, are continuously appropriated to the Department of
Justice for the purpose of offsetting General Fund costs incurred by
the Department of Justice.
(e) If the action is brought at the request of a board within the
Department of Consumer Affairs or a local consumer affairs agency,
the court shall determine the reasonable expenses incurred by the
board or local agency in the investigation and prosecution of the
action.
Before any penalty collected is paid out pursuant to subdivision
(c), the amount of any reasonable expenses incurred by the board
shall be paid to the Treasurer for deposit in the special fund of the
board described in Section 205. If the board has no such special
fund, the moneys shall be paid to the Treasurer. The amount of any
reasonable expenses incurred by a local consumer affairs agency shall
be paid to the general fund of the municipality or county that funds
the local agency.
(f) If the action is brought by a city attorney of a city and
county, the entire amount of the penalty collected shall be paid to
the treasurer of the city and county in which the judgment was
entered for the exclusive use by the city attorney for the
enforcement of consumer protection laws. However, if the action is
brought by a city attorney of a city and county for the purposes of
civil enforcement pursuant to Section 17980 of the Health and Safety
Code or Article 3 (commencing with Section 11570) of Chapter 10 of
Division 10 of the Health and Safety Code, either the penalty
collected shall be paid entirely to the treasurer of the city and
county in which the judgment was entered or, upon the request of the
city attorney, the court may order that up to one-half of the
penalty, under court supervision and approval, be paid for the
purpose of restoring, maintaining, or enhancing the premises that
were the subject of the action, and that the balance of the penalty
be paid to the treasurer of the city and county.
SECTION 1. Section 512 of the Labor Code is
amended to read:
512. (a) An employer shall not employ an employee for a work
period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee
with a meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if the
total work period per day of the employee is no more than six hours,
the meal period may be waived by mutual consent of both the employer
and employee. An employer shall not employ an employee for a work
period of more than 10 hours per day without providing the employee
with a second meal period of not less than 30 minutes, except that if
the total hours worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal
period may be waived by mutual consent of the employer and the
employee only if the first meal period was not waived.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the Industrial Welfare
Commission may adopt a working condition order permitting a meal
period to commence after six hours of work if the commission
determines that the order is consistent with the health and welfare
of the affected employees.
(c) Subdivision (a) does not apply to an employee in the wholesale
baking industry who is subject to an Industrial Welfare Commission
wage order and who is covered by a valid collective bargaining
agreement that provides for a 35-hour workweek consisting of five
7-hour days, payment of one and one-half times the regular rate of
pay for time worked in excess of seven hours per day, and a rest
period of not less than 10 minutes every two hours.
(d) If an employee in the motion picture industry or the
broadcasting industry, as those industries are defined in Industrial
Welfare Commission Wage Order Numbers 11 and 12, is covered by a
valid collective bargaining agreement that provides for meal periods
and includes a monetary remedy if the employee does not receive a
meal period required by the agreement, then the terms, conditions,
and remedies of the agreement pertaining to meal periods apply in
lieu of the applicable provisions pertaining to meal periods of
subdivision (a), Section 226.7, and Industrial Welfare Commission
Wage Order Numbers 11 and 12.
(e) Subdivisions (a) and (b) do not apply to an employee specified
in subdivision (f) if both of the following conditions are
satisfied:
(1) The employee is covered by a valid collective bargaining
agreement.
(2) The valid collective bargaining agreement expressly provides
for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees,
and expressly provides for meal periods for those employees, final
and binding arbitration of disputes concerning application of its
meal period provisions, premium wage rates for all overtime hours
worked, and a regular hourly rate of pay of not less than 30 percent
more than the state minimum wage rate.
(f) Subdivision (e) applies to each of the following employees:
(1) An employee employed in a construction occupation.
(2) An employee employed as a commercial driver.
(3) An employee employed in the security services industry as a
security officer, who is registered pursuant to Chapter 11.5
(commencing with Section 7580) of Division 3 of the Business and
Professions Code, and who is employed by a private patrol operator
registered pursuant to that chapter.
(4) An employee employed by an electrical corporation, a gas
corporation, or a local publicly owned electric utility.
(g) The following definitions apply for the purposes of this
section:
(1) "Commercial driver" means an employee who operates a vehicle
described in Section 260 or 462 of, or subdivision (b) of Section
15210 of, the Vehicle Code.
(2) "Construction occupation" means all job classifications
associated with construction by Article 2 (commencing with Section
7025) of Chapter 9 of Division 3 of the Business and Professions
Code, including work involving alteration, demolition, building,
excavation, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, improvement, and
repair, and any other similar or related occupation or trade.
(3) "Electrical corporation" has the same meaning as provided in
Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code.
(4) "Gas corporation" has the same meaning as provided in Section
222 of the Public Utilities Code.
(5) "Local publicly owned electric utility" has the same meaning
as provided in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code.