Senate labor committee advances package of workplace bills, sending six measures to next committees

SACRAMENTO — The Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee advanced a package of workplace measures on March 27, moving bills that would change how the state tracks wages for benefits verification, expand bereavement leave, give AC Transit employees access to the Public Employment Relations Board, boost enforcement for public works projects, require a standardized "Know Your Rights" curriculum in the workforce system, and tighten enforcement of skilled-and-trained workforce rules.

The six bills cleared committee by votes ranging from unanimous to 4–1, and will now proceed to relevant policy and appropriations panels. Committee leaders said the measures respond to gaps in enforcement, data and worker protections that have real effects on workers’ pay and access to benefits.

SB 1054, presented by the bill’s author, would add occupation and hours-worked fields and other data elements to the state’s base wage file used for unemployment insurance reporting. "SB 1054 can change that by allowing us to answer key questions like, do education and training programs connect people to the right jobs," said Maxwell Johnson, senior policy and research analyst at California Competes. Witnesses from the California EDGE Coalition also said the data would help counties and state agencies automate…