Drug use in California can cause headaches for employers. Balancing employee privacy interests against safety concerns forces employers to make tough choices with little guidance. Legal drug testing of existing employees is so limited that most drug use won’t be detected until after an accident. With increasing support for legal medical marijuana, many employers have struggled to determine how to respond to applicants and employees who test positive. Now, with recent case law and the FEHC’s final regulations, employers finally have the support they need.
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Both federal and California law have long forbidden religious discrimination in employment, while also requiring employers to grant reasonable accommodations for religious observances. A common accommodation is to modify a policy to enable an employee to engage in a particular religious observance (such as not working on the Sabbath). California has now set itself apart with the recent amendments to the FEHA.
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Continuing in this series on new California regs, this post calls out three additional areas where the pregnancy disability regulations have changed as of January 1, 2013. Last time, we talked about expanded definitions, time periods for leave, and required notices. This time, we are talking reinstatement, interplay with other leaves and reasonable accommodation. For a deeper dive, you’ll have to read the regulations yourself, which you can find here.
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After almost two years of public comment and editing, the California Office of Administrative Law finally settled on a crop of regulations that substantially alter the way Pregnancy Disability Leaves (PDL) are administered in California. The regulations (effective December 30, 2012) have created additional burdens for employers that many may find onerous:
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We all know that agency regulations can be informative guidance but, by their nature, extremely detailed and—let’s face it—dry as toast. The new disability regulations, which went into effect on December 30, 2012, are no exception.
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Governor Edmund G. Brown signed a bill that clarifies religious accommodation requirements for employers under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).
Existing state law protects employees from discrimination based on religious beliefs and also requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious belief or observance, unless doing so causes an undue hardship.
The new law, AB 1964 (Yamada; D-Davis), clarifies that FEHA covers a religious dress practice (such as a head covering or jewelry) or a religious grooming practice (such as a hair style or facial hair) as a belief or observance.
Enforcement agencies have recently focused on employers who segregate employees wearing religious dress, such as head coverings, from jobs that involve public contact. Such employer actions, based on perceived biases or customer preferences, are unlawful (see HR Watchdog’s Religious Discrimination Suit Shows Need for Employer Awareness blog post).
Keep checking back for complete update on new 2013 employment laws. We will discuss AB 1964 and other new laws in greater detail, along with best practices.
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