SF 18 – Reasonable accommodations for employees (pregnancy or childbirth)
SF 269 – Minimum wage increase
SF 270 – Wage theft
SSB 1087 – Political affiliations on PERB
FLOOR ACTION:
SF 269 increases the state minimum hourly wage to $8 as of July 1, 2015 and to $8.75 as of July 1, 2016. [2/24: 27-22 (party line, with Bertrand voting “yes”; Chelgren excused)]
SF 270 puts the burden on the employer to establish the legality of deductions from employee wages and requires that the employer must obtain a written authorization for certain deductions in advance. The bill requires employers to keep a written record of the terms of employment. The defense that an employer “unintentionally” failed to pay employees would no longer be a defense. The bill does allow an employer to correct honest mistakes under certain conditions without a penalty. The bill establishes a statewide, toll-free wage theft hotline. Employees filing wage theft claims and co-workers who offered testimony on their behalf would be protected from retaliation under threat of penalty. The bill requires the Labor Commissioner to notify employers of these provisions by September 1, 2015. The effective date is January 1, 2016. [2/24: 26-23 (party line; Chelgren excused)]
COMMITTEE ACTION:
SF 18 requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodations to an employee based on medical conditions related to the employee’s pregnancy or childbirth if the employee requests accommodations with the advice of the employee’s health care provider. [2/25: 9-2 (Costello, Shipley “no”)]
SSB 1087 provides that no more than one member of the three-member Public Employee Relations Board can be of the same political party. Two members of the board must be registered with the two largest political parties in the state. Currently, that would mean one member must be a Democrat, one must be a Republican, and the third member of the board must be registered as a no party voter. [2/25: short form]