BILL NUMBER: AB 1543	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Holden

                        JANUARY 23, 2014

   An act to amend Section 1401 of the Labor Code, relating to
employment.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1543, as introduced, Holden. Employment: mass layoffs,
relocations, and terminations.
   Existing law creates the Governor's Office of Business and
Economic Development and requires that the office serve the Governor
as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of
California on issues relating to business development, private sector
investment, and economic growth. Existing law prohibits employers
from ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination, as defined,
of an industrial or commercial facility employing a prescribed number
of people, without first giving 60 days' written notice, as
specified, to affected employees and certain government agencies and
officials.
   This bill would require that an employer ordering a mass layoff,
relocation, or termination also provide the written notice to the
Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. This bill
would require the Employment Development Department, upon receipt of
the written notice, to post the notice on its Internet Web site.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1401 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
   1401.  (a) An employer may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or
termination at a covered establishment unless, 60 days before the
order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order to
the following:
   (1) The employees of the covered establishment affected by the
order.
   (2)  (A)    The Employment Development
Department,  the Governor's Office   of Business and
Economic Development,  the local workforce investment board, and
the chief elected official of each city and county government within
which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs. 
   (B) The Employment Development Department shall, upon receipt of
the notice, post the notice on its Internet Web site. 
   (b) An employer required to give notice of any mass layoff,
relocation, or termination under this chapter shall include in its
notice the elements required by the federal Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 2101 et seq.).
   (c) Notwithstanding the requirements of subdivision (a), an
employer is not required to provide notice if a mass layoff,
relocation, or termination is necessitated by a physical calamity or
act of war.