BILL NUMBER: AB 2743	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Committee on Labor and Employment (Assembly Members
Roger Hernández (Chair), Alejo, Chau, and Holden)

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2014

   An act to amend Section 203 of the Labor Code, relating to
employment.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2743, as introduced, Committee on Labor and Employment.
Employment: wages.
   Existing law authorizes specified employees working in the
entertainment industry and their employers to enter into a collective
bargaining agreement to establish a time limit for payment of wages
after an employee is discharged or laid off.
   Existing law imposes civil penalties on an employer who willfully
fails to pay wages, in accordance with specified provisions, for an
employee who is discharged or who quits. Existing law authorizes
civil action for those penalties.
   This bill would apply the civil penalty and suit provision to the
violation of a time limit for payment of wages established pursuant
to that collective bargaining agreement provision.
   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 203 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
   203.  (a) If an employer willfully fails to pay, without abatement
or reduction, in accordance with Sections 201, 201.3, 201.5, 
201.9,  202, and 205.5, any wages of an employee who is
discharged or who quits, the wages of the employee shall continue as
a penalty from the due date thereof at the same rate until paid or
until an action therefor is commenced; but the wages shall not
continue for more than 30 days. An employee who secretes or absents
himself or herself to avoid payment to him or her, or who refuses to
receive the payment when fully tendered to him or her, including any
penalty then accrued under this section, is not entitled to any
benefit under this section for the time during which he or she so
avoids payment.
   (b) Suit may be filed for these penalties at any time before the
expiration of the statute of limitations on an action for the wages
from which the penalties arise.