AB 2536, Mullin. Employees: emergency rescue personnel.
Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel. Existing law defines emergency rescue personnel to include an officer, employee, or member of a political subdivision of the state, or of a sheriff’s department, police department, or a private fire department. Existing law further requires the employer to reinstate and reimburse an employee who is discharged or in any other manner discriminated against in his or her employment in violation of these provisions. Under existing law, any employer who willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee, as specified, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law exempts a public safety agency or provider of emergency medical services from these provisions if, as determined by the employer, the employee’s absence would hinder public safety or emergency medical services.
This bill would require an employee who is a health care provider, as defined, to notify his or her employer at the time the employee becomes designated as emergency rescue personnel and when the employee is notified that he or she will be deployed as a result of that designation.
This bill would expand the definition of emergency rescue personnel to include an officer, employee, or member of a disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by the state. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 230.3 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
(a) An employer shall not discharge or in any manner discriminate against an employee for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, a reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel.
(b) An employee who is discharged, threatened with discharge, demoted, suspended, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment by his or her employer because the employee has taken time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, a reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel shall be entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits caused by the acts of the employer. Any employer who willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee or former employee who has been determined to be eligible for rehiring or promotion by a grievance procedure, arbitration, or hearing authorized by law, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(c) (1) Subdivisions (a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to any public safety agency or provider of emergency medical services if, as determined by the employer, the employee’s absence would hinder the availability of public safety or emergency medical services.
(2) An employee who is a health care provider shall notify his or her employer at the time the employee becomes designated as emergency rescue personnel and when the employee is notified that he or she will be deployed as a result of that designation.
(d) (1) For purposes of this section, “volunteer firefighter” shall have the same meaning as the term “volunteer” in Section 50952 of the Government Code.
(2) For purposes of this section, “emergency rescue personnel” means any person who is an officer, employee, or member of a fire department or fire protection or firefighting agency of the federal government, the State of California, a city, county, city and county, district, or other public or municipal corporation or political subdivision of this state, or of a sheriff’s department, police department, or a private fire department, or of a disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by this state, whether that person is a volunteer or partly paid or fully paid, while he or she is actually engaged in providing emergency services as defined by Section 1799.107 of the Health and Safety Code.
(3) For purposes of this section, “health care provider” means any person licensed or certified pursuant to Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) of the Business and Professions Code, or licensed pursuant to the Osteopathic Initiative Act, or the Chiropractic Initiative Act.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
96