New California Laws January 2023

By: Minh Luong and Neharika Salhotra

With the new year and a new beginning, several new bills took effect on January 1, 2023. California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed the following bills into law, addressing several important issues that impact the daily lives of California residents.

1. Criminal Records:  The SB-731 bill grants permanent and electronic sealing of felony convictions if a person fully completes their sentence and has completed the required number of years without arrests. However, law enforcement, courts, and the Department of Justice would still be able to access these records. This will open up opportunities for former incarcerated individuals to find employment, while ensuring that any relevant history of violence or potential threats from these individuals will be accounted for in legal proceedings.

2. Mental Illness: The Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Act was signed in September. This bill lets family members, first responders, and others to ask a judge to draw up a treatment plan for someone diagnosed with certain disorders, including schizophrenia. If the individual refuses to comply, they may be placed under a conservatorship and ordered to comply. This procedure will be known as the CARE Court process. The CARE Court process ensures that persons in need of mental health assistance are taken care of by their family members, especially in family law cases when intervention is necessary to reach a resolution.

3. Workplace Safety: The SB-1044 bill prohibits employers from taking or threatening adverse action against any employee if they do not come to work as long as they have “reasonable belief” that the work site is unsafe. “Reasonable belief” is defined as a substantive reason for their lack of attendance in-person, including  health-related concerns, fear of threat from a co-worker, or threats that could result in irreversible damage. This bill also requires employees to inform employers of the emergency conditions requiring their need to avoid the work site. In order to avoid being culpable for failing to inform their employers, employees should ensure that they are informing their direct supervisors and the human resources department in a clear and traceable manner such as email.

4. Minimum Wage: Minimum wage will increase to $15.50 for all employers. This is up $0.50 from 2022 for companies with more than 25 employees and $1.50 higher for companies with less than 25 employees. Minimum wage is crucial to ensuring that employees are paid enough to afford necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing in the state of California. However, certain employees, such as salespeople, student employees, and camp counsellors, are exempt from this law..

5. Student Safety: The AB 1467 law requires that public postsecondary governing bodies in California adopt and implement written procedures or protocols to ensure that students, faculty, and staff who are victims of sexual assault receive treatment and specific information. This means that victims will be able to understand the various options available to them, including criminal or civil prosecutions and the disciplinary process through the institution;  so they can choose to address the matter as they deem appropriate. This bill also requires that counselors for sexual assault victims be independent of the campus Title IX office, ensuring there is no bias or influence from the institution.

6. Mass Layoff, Relocation, or Termination of Call Center Employees: Under the AB 1601 bill, call center employers are required to notify employees of intentions to relocate the call center.. Therefore when a call center employer intends to move its call center, or one or more facilities or operating units within the center comprising of at least 30% of the call center’s total volume when measured against the average call volume for the previous 12 months, or similar operations to a foreign country, they must inform the employees before beginning layoffs.

If you have additional questions regarding the applicability of these laws, or understanding the relevance of the bills to your unique situation, contact the skilled attorneys at Chugh, LLP.

Works Cited

Gardiner, Dustin, and Sophia Bollag. “Here Are 13 New Laws Californians Must Start Following in 2023.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Dec. 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/new-california-laws-2023-17626931.php.

Lloyd, Jonathan. “2023 Is Almost Here. Here Are the New California Laws to Know.” NBC Los Angeles, NBC Southern California, 16 Dec. 2022, https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california-news/new-california-laws-2023/3056158/.

“New California Laws for 2023 and Beyond: What Employers Should Know: Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath Llp.” Publications | Insights | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, https://www.faegredrinker.com/en/insights/publications/2022/10/new-california-laws-for-2023-and-beyond-what-employers-should-know.