BILL NUMBER: AB 1509	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Committee on Labor and Employment (Assembly Members
Roger Hernández (Chair), Chu, Low, McCarty, and Thurmond)

                        MARCH 4, 2015

   An act to amend Section 6310 of the Labor Code, relating to
occupational safety and health.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1509, as introduced, Committee on Labor and Employment.
Occupational safety and health: complaints: retaliation.
   Under existing law, it is unlawful to discharge or discriminate
against an employee for making a complaint regarding employee safety
or health, instituting or testifying in a proceeding under his or her
rights, participating in an occupational health and safety
committee, or refusing to perform work in violation of any
occupational safety or health standard or safety order. Existing law
further requires the reinstatement and reimbursement, as specified,
of an employee who was discharged or discriminated against in the
terms or conditions of his or her employment, in violation of these
provisions. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to
willfully refuse to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee
who has been determined to be eligible for rehiring or promotion, as
specified.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these
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 6310 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
   6310.  (a)  No   A  person shall 
not  discharge or in any manner discriminate against any
employee because the employee has done any of the following:
   (1) Made  any   an  oral or written
complaint to the division, other governmental agencies having
statutory responsibility for or assisting the division with reference
to employee safety or health, his or her employer, or his or her
representative.
   (2) Instituted or caused to be instituted  any 
 a  proceeding under or relating to his or her rights or has
testified or is about to testify in the proceeding or because of the
exercise by the employee on behalf of himself, herself, or others of
any rights afforded him or her.
   (3) Participated in an occupational health and safety committee
established pursuant to Section 6401.7.
   (b)  Any   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 made a
bona fide oral or written complaint to the division, other
governmental agencies having statutory responsibility for or
assisting the division with reference to employee safety or health,
his or her employer, or his or her representative, of unsafe working
conditions, or work practices, in his or her employment or place of
employment, or has participated in an employer-employee occupational
health and safety committee, shall be entitled to reinstatement and
reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits caused by the acts of
the employer.  Any   An  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.