California employers take note: late last month, the Governator signed a few new employment laws, but vetoed many others.
Two bills are now law in California:
- A.B. 10, which immediately exempts from state hourly overtime pay requirements computer professionals earning more than $75,000 a year .
- A.B. 2001, which gives local governments authority to establish whistleblower hotlines, and requires cities and counties to protect the confidentiality of whistleblowers.
The bills that Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed include:
- A.B. 2279, which would have prohibited employers from discriminating in hiring, termination, or employment conditions based on the use of medical marijuana.
- A.B. 437, which would have reversed (for state law purposes only) the "paycheck rule" on equal pay claims as set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
- A.B. 2386, which would have changed the rules for farmworkers’ union elections, providing for either secret mail-in ballots or a traditional ballot box election.
- A.B. 3063, which would have prohibited employers from asking job applicants about arrests or detentions that did not result in convictions, or about participation in pre-trial or post-trial diversion programs.
- S.B. 1717, which would have doubled the amount of weeks a worker could receive disability pay.