CRA Member Newsletter- April 2023

CRA Member Newsletter

April 28, 2023 | CRA Newsletter: Legislative, Regulatory, Local & Other Updates

Message from the President

It has been a crazy month at the State Capitol as we approached policy deadlines and a number of bills the CRA team advocated on. As we wait for each house's Appropriations committees to meet and determine the fate of thousands of bills, we anticipate a number of floor fights and hard-fought battles as bills move to the second house. While other state legislatures are coming to an end, we are just getting warmed up in California!

I hope you will take a moment and read through this email to get the most up-to-date information on legislation and regulation moving through the process. As always, if you have any questions or need additional information please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly or anyone on the CRA team!

Rachel

In this Issue:

Legislative Updates
Regulatory Updates
CA Community Pharmacy Coalition Updates
CRA Outreach, Activities & Other Updates
CRA In The News
Member News
CRA Member Portal

Legislative Updates

Warehouse Bill Fails

AB 1000 (Reyes) failed this week in the Assembly Local Government Committee, which CRA was heavily involved in with the opposition coalition. This bill would have been terrible for the business community, supply chain, consumers, jobs, housing, the environment and the economy. Read the coalition's oppose letter here.

Workplace Violence Legislation

Labor is pushing legislation (SB 553 - Cortese) this year to essentially copy the existing Healthcare Workplace Violence Regulation (which is more onerous than the draft workplace violence regulation that Cal/OSHA is working on- see the regulatory section that follows this for an update on the regs side) and force all industries to comply with it while simultaneously broadening what counts as "workplace violence" to include verbal harassment. Not only is such verbal harassment already dealt with by labor law, this new definition would considerably broaden the obligations of employers under the regulation related to training and record keeping. CRA is heavily involved in the effort to kill this terrible bill and, likely, will be leading the opposition when it is expected to head to the second house (Assembly) later this year. We are particularly concerned because SB 553 has the potential to make the entire rulemaking by Cal/OSHA irrelevant and apply the more onerous Healthcare Workplace Violence Regulation to all industries, and do so much sooner than the present process would potentially finish. The bill would also effectively eliminate the LP, AP and security related jobs and greatly increase instances of violence and even death in our stores placing employees and customers at the highest risk of the bills' impacts. Read the opposition letter here.

EPR Textile Recovery Program

(SB 707) Meeting with

State Senator Newman

Thank you to the subject matter experts who participated in our follow up meeting with Senator Josh Newman regarding his SB 707 "Extended Producer Responsibility Textile Recovery Program". Sen. Newman heard valuable feedback from nearly 30 subject matter experts on how the bill will impact retailers. Sen. Newman has already started making important changes to the bill in an effort to work with CalRetailers. We will continue to work with Sen. Newman and his staff so CRA can, hopefully, come to a neutral or even support position on this legislation. CRA members are asked to send Rachel feedback, questions or concerns with the current bill language as well as any suggested amendments to the language by Friday, May 26. The information will be compiled into a comprehensive document CRA will be sharing with the Senator.

Receipts Bill

AB 1347 (Ting) passed out of Assembly Natural Resources earlier this month. Leading up to and during the hearing, the CRA team submitted a letter of opposition and provided opposition testimony. Unfortunately, (and as we expected), the author did not take CRA and the opposition coalition's proposed amendments. Our team met with the Privacy Committee consultant as the bill is heard in that committee next. We are hopeful to see positive amendments from the committee.

Read the oppose letter here.

Food Labeling and Expiration Dates

The CRA team continues to work with Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin on AB 660 related to food labeling and expiration dates. Her office has reached out to the CRA team in an effort to work with CRA on bill language. Asm. Irwin will be touring a Raley's store next week and we are working on setting up additional store tours to help educate her on the impacts of the legislation.

Climate-Related Financial Risk Report

CRA signed on to an opposition letter for SB 261 (Stern), which was sent to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. The bill would require a broad range of business entities to prepare and submit to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) a climate-related financial risk report. Read the letter here.

Legislative Deadlines

April 28, 2023 Last day for policy committees to hear and report to fiscal committees fiscal bills introduced in their house
May 5, 2023 Last day for policy committees to hear and report to the floor non-fiscal bills introduced in their house
May 12, 2023 Last day for policy committees to meet prior to June 5
May 19, 2023 Last day for fiscal committees to hear and report to the Floor bills introduced in their house. Last day for fiscal committees to meet prior to June 5.
June 15, 2023 Budget must be passed by midnight.
July 14, 2023 Last day for policy committees to meet and report bills. Summer Recess begins upon adjournment of session provided Budget Bill has been passed.

CRA-Sponsored Legislation

SB 524 (Caballero)

The CRA team's hard work over the past several months and weeks has resulted in CRA's sponsored bill SB 524 (Caballero) passing out of its first two committee hearings (Senate B&P last week and Senate Health this week) and is now headed to Senate Appropriations where we'll focus our advocacy efforts to get the bill through to the Senate Floor. Read CRA's support letter here.

AB 1708 (Muratsuchi)

CRA's co-sponsored legislation AB 1708 (Muratsuchi) was held in the Assembly Public Safety committee as we expected, however, the Committee Chair Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer unanimously recommended the bill be reconsidered, which gives us another bite at the apple later this year or next year's legislative session. The CRA team worked with the bill's co-sponsors to bring media attention to this issue via a press conference the morning of the hearing.

Labor Bills

CRA is opposing AB 647 (Holden), which would unnecessarily increase worker retention standards for grocery employees and establish a private right of action and complaint procedures. These provisions are redundant with existing employee protections offered, without sufficient data to substantiate them, and create significant legal liabilities related to private rights of action, rebuttal presumptions and employee data confidentiality. These conditions will dramatically discourage growth of the grocery industry, and conversely, exacerbate workforce opportunities in the future. Read the opposition letter here.

SB 809 (Smallwood-Cuevas) undermines the years of negotiations that culminated in the existing California Fair Chance Act, which struck a careful balance between removing barriers to the workforce and the need to consider conviction history for certain job positions. SB 809 would eliminate employers’ ability to consider conviction history unless they meet one of the narrow exceptions, even if that conviction history is voluntarily disclosed to them or widely publicized. Further, provisions causing delays in hiring and excessive penalties would exacerbate the rising costs of doing business in California and further impact affordability. Read the opposition letter here.

CRA sent a letter of opposition to AB 524 (Wicks), which would create a broad new protected class under FEHA: employees with family caregiver status. Read the letter here.

CRA sent an oppose unless amended letter to the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee regarding AB 1516 (Kalra), which would require the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to convene a working group related to minimum wage. Read the letter here.

These bills and more were included in CRA's Workforce Development Committee meeting this week, which focused on labor and workforce issues that are a priority for our legislative advocacy efforts. If you would like to be added to the Labor/Workforce Development list serve or are unsure if you are on the list, please email cra@calretailers.com.

Off-Sale Beer and Wine Licenses

CRA sent a letter and testified in support of SB 277 (Dodd), which authorizes off- sale beer and wine licensees to sell low-alcohol by volume (ABV) spirits-based ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails or “RTDs” to adult consumers. Senator Dodd shared his support for California Retailers on social media shortly after the bill's passage out of the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization.

Read the letter here.

Bad Arbitration Legislation

The CRA team has requested feedback from our member companies regarding SB 365 (Wiener), which impacts all consumer or employment arbitration agreements. Presently, if a court denies a motion to compel arbitration (in any context, not just employment), California Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 916 provides that the court proceedings should be stayed while the appeal is resolved. The California Employment Lawyers Association and Consumer Attorneys of California claim that appeals of these motions are meritless and, therefore, trial court proceedings should never be stayed during appeal. This means the company must spend the time and money litigating in court even if the appellate court later agrees the case should have been in arbitration all along. CRA is strongly opposed to this bill and part of the broader opposition coalition.

CRA Bill Lists

The above bills are just a sampling of the legislation CRA is tracking and actively working on. To view the entire list of bills, including letters of support and opposition, visit the CRA member portal. We have also started holding committee meetings specific to certain issues including those focused on labor and environmental responsibility issues. If you are interested in serving on a subject matter specific committee or not sure which committees and/or list serves you are on, please email cra@calretailers.com.

Regulatory Updates

California's Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act Expansion (SB 1013)

The CRA team gave public comment during CalRecycle's April 25th public workshop regarding (SB 1013), which was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year expanding California's Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act to include wine and distilled spirits effective January 1, 2024. Included in our remarks to CalRecycle was a request for the Agency to consider the impact these regulations will have on retailers, particularly with the associated costs in compliance. CRA urged CalRecycle to consider the impacts these regulations will have on business throughout the state if funding is not identified or allocated to offset growing program management and implementation costs.

Key points CRA made during public comment:

Inconsistent enforcement and local requirements will impact business operations.
Varying degrees of enforcement and fines levied on business by local municipalities could result in additional costs for grocery stores.
Clarity is needed from CalRecycle on the compliance process and how to ensure that items are properly recycled while dealing with inconsistencies in enforcement across the state.

The workshop included a timeline for the regulatory process, an overview of Dealer Cooperative concepts, Dealer registration information, Redemption Plan approval, amendments and updates and proposed Dealer Cooperative Reporting.

CalRecycle is hosting two SB 1013 informational webinars on May 10. For additional information including the Notice regarding the changes impacting the wine and distilled spirits industry as well as information regarding how to register for the webinars click here.

Indoor Heat Regulation

Cal/OSHA has begun formal rulemaking for indoor heat regulations (information here). The 45-day comment period is presently underway, and CRA is working on a response letter ahead of the Agency's next board meeting on May 18. You can read the text of the regs here.

The Indoor heat regs would apply to any business or place with temperatures over 82 degrees Fahrenheit. These regs have been in process for six years (since 2017) and will likely be approved as is, but we want to put our concerns on record. We are hopeful there will be a 15-day change order, but are not anticipating any big changes. There is a sense everything has to be done by this Summer and the agency has a backlog making it unlikely they’ll take a step back on anything resulting in non-substantial changes.

Workplace Violence Regulation

The Cal/OSHA Board provided an update on the status of the General Industry Workplace Violence regulation (information here). The Board expects to release a revised draft next month (May of 2023), which will then have an advisory committee. This regulation will apply to virtually every non-healthcare industry in the state, and will require additional record keeping and training around events of violence, or threats of violence. Because formal rulemaking has not yet begun, we cannot estimate the eventual voting date at this time, but we can estimate that it is unlikely to be up for a final vote until, at the earliest, late 2024. These regulations are also tied to/impacted by SB 553 (Cortese), which is included in the above legislative section of this newsletter.

Prop. 12 (Pork) Update

CRA is working with the Prop. 12 coalition on next steps with the lawsuit after securing another stay of enforcement until July 1, 2023. The CRA team continues to receive regular updates from the coalition's legal team regarding ongoing discussions with the AG’s office on the status of the appeal and the anticipated Supreme Court ruling.

Los Angeles County

Fair Work Week Update

Jeff Pransky from the California Department of Consumer and Business Affairs reached out to CRA requesting feedback/perspective on the LA City ordinance and what (if any) considerations they should make in using that as a model for the unincorporated areas. They also want to consider other industries beyond retail, and want to hear our thoughts as to which industries might also be appropriate for this kind of ordinance.

As a refresher, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion in December to return in six months with an ordinance. Jeff let our team know that they were actually going to bring it back to the board in April.

CRA spoke with Jeff as well as Rose Basmadzhyan, Chief of the Office of Labor Equity and a representative from the County’s Department of Economic Opportunity.

The CRA team will continue to work on this issue and keep members updated.

SB 1215 Electronic Waste Recycling Act Covered Battery-Embedded Products Rulemaking Process Begins

Calrecycle held an initial, informational workshop and subsequent payment rate considerations workshop regarding the covered battery-embedded products regulations following last year's passage of SB 1215. CRA, along with the Consumer Technology Association and the Toy Association, successfully worked with the bill's author last year to secure the bill's passage expanding California’s successful e-waste program to include covered battery-embedded products. By expanding this program, SB 1215 ensures that these products will be appropriately handled and recycled, creating an end-of-life pathway for many such items.

Read CRA's update on the Info session here and the payment rate considerations workshop here.

SB 54 Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act Rulemaking Update

The CRA team gave public comments during CalRecycle's April 25th public workshop for the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54).

Concerns we flagged during our comments included:

Health hazards and increased costs associated with proposed regulations
Labor compliance costs
The potential to overwhelm retailers with separate programs for dozens of products
Overly burdensome regulatory costs that will ultimately get passed down to consumers at a time of increased economic volatility.

The SB 54 workshop included an overview of regulatory definitions and a review of covered materials and covered material exemptions. The next SB 54 public workshop will be held on May 31, 2023.

Lead Regulation

Cal/OSHA has begun formal rulemaking for its revision to both the General Industry and Construction Lead Regulations, with the proposed text and relevant information available here. At the meeting, the 45-day comment period ended, after extensive oral and written testimony had been submitted. Now the Standards Board staff will have to review those comments, respond and determine whether a revision to the Standards Board's present draft is necessary before it is voted upon by the Board.

There was a particularly strong showing from the lead battery industry, the construction industry and utilities, all pushing for feasibility issues with data and math supporting their positions. Notably, we were able to convince even a labor-appointed board member (Dave Harrison) to note that there appeared to be implementation issues with the draft regulation, and express support for a delayed implementation of 1-2 years as a potential solution - which was the ask pushed by the Chamber and others. To be clear though - all members seemed intent on improving the present lead regulation, and are unlikely to vote no when the final vote arrives.

Now the focus is on the Division's Research and Standards team, who will need to determine if revisions (such as delayed implementation) are necessary based on the comments, and bring such revisions back to the Board in the next few months.

CRA sent a letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) providing the Board with comments regarding Cal-OSHA’s proposed amendments to the construction and general industry safety orders. The comments to OSHSB follows previous submitted comments to Cal-OSHA Standards Board Executive Officer Christina Shupe in November of last year, which identified concerns with then proposed revisions to the existing orders contained in draft language posted by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in November 2016. That letter and the latest comments to OSHSB put CRA and other affected industries on record for this rulemaking and identify additional issues with the proposed amendments to both orders that would create additional compliance impediments for our industries and members. Read the latest letter here.

California Community Pharmacy Coalition Updates

AB 1286 Closing a Pharmacy

AB 1286 (Haney) was heard in Assembly Business and Professions Committee earlier this month and the CCPC team has been meeting with members of the committee voicing our opposition to the bill. The Committee is offering amendments to the author for consideration. While this moves somewhat in a positive direction, it by no means moves CCPC from our strong opposition to the bill. B&P was the first policy committee meeting on this bill, so there will be more opportunities to share concerns and work on expanding the opposition coalition. Read the opposition letter here.

CRA held several meetings regarding this legislation including:

Board of Optomotery Executive Officer Anne Sodergren
Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs
Assemblymember Chen
Assemblymember Gipson's office
Assemblymember Alex Lee
The coalition also facilitated a discussion between subject matter experts from member companies and the Governor's office.

Board of Pharmacy

The CRA team testified at the Board of Pharmacy's April Board meeting in support of CRA-sponsored legislation SB 524 (Caballero) and in opposition to AB 1286 (Haney), in support of remote processing and keeping flavoring in medicine out of compounding requirements. We also secured Board support for digital signature requirements, which the CRA team advocated for in the weeks leading up to the Board meeting.

The Board voted to officially take a watch position on SB 524, which is considered a win for the Coalition. As we expected, the Board is supportive of the concept of test to treat, but doesn't want to support unless AB 1286 passes and/or working conditions are addressed effectively tying the two bills together. Maria Serpa, Board VP, voted no on the watch motion and wanted to support if amended instead. Most of the public comments given during the agenda item were in support of the bill including CCPC. At the end of the day it’s good that the Board isn’t opposing SB 524 as that would have caused a lot of problems for our Coalition's legislative advocacy efforts.

More on Remote Processing

For background on the remote processing issue, which the CCP Coalition has been advocating on, the Board of Pharmacy Licensing Committee met earlier this month where committee members considered an initial draft proposal to create permanent statutory authorization allowing pharmacists working for community pharmacies to perform certain work remotely. Although many pharmacies have been allowing pharmacists to work remotely for years, the Board of Pharmacy had taken the position that remote processing is not permitted beyond the COVID-19 remote processing waiver, which is set to expire on May 28, 2023.

CRA has been advocating to ensure community pharmacists can continue to work remotely, including providing comments at the Licensing Committee meeting this month. Although there is a Board-sponsored bill moving through the Legislature now dealing with pharmacist remote work (AB 1557), it is limited to in-patient settings due to labor opposition to creating this authorization for community pharmacies.

We will continue to advocate with the Board, the Legislature and the Administration on this issue. We raised this with the Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs earlier this month, who said she would have her legal counsel review current statute to determine whether they agree with the Board of Pharmacy’s position that remote processing is not/has never been permitted. Please let us know if you have any questions.

CRA Outreach, Activities & Other Updates

PAGA Update

CRA President Rachel Michelin was in Washington, D.C. last week to advocate and fundraise for PAGA. She met with a number of national associations to talk about the campaign, answer questions on strategy and broaden the coalition in support of PAGA reform. Meetings included the International Franchise Association, Food Marketing Institute, National Grocer's Association, Consumer Brands Association, Airlines for America as well as RILA & NRF. In addition, Rachel met with members of the California Congressional delegation including a briefing to Speaker McCarthy and, this week, presented the PAGA campaign efforts to BizFed's April Small Business and Employment Committee.

CRA President Provides Strategies for Local Government to Prevent Organized Retail Crime at League of California Cities'

City Leaders Summit

CRA President and CEO Rachel Michelin spoke on a panel at the League of California Cities' City Leaders Summit addressing "Strategies for Local Government to Prevent Organized Retail Crime". The panel included Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi, whom CRA partnered with last year on a regional ORC and Retail Theft Summit in Fresno, California Highway Patrol Captain Jason Daughrity and Rite Aid's ORC Investigations Manager Michael Lamb.

CRA President Joins GoBiz for Historic MOU Signing with California Ports

CRA President Rachel Michelin joined the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development in an MOU signing ceremony at the invitation of Dee Dee Myers, Senior Advisor to the Governor and Director of GO-Biz. California’s five containerized ports inclusive of the Port of Hueneme, the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Oakland, and the Port of San Diego, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Sacramento launching the California Port Data Partnership alongside state and federal partners.

The MOU outlines an agreement between the five ports to jointly advance computerized and cloud-based data interoperability with a common goal of supporting improved freight system resilience, goods movement efficiency, emissions reduction, and economic competitiveness. Read more.

CRA Team Joins National Retail Federation at Women's Public Leadership Network

National Summit

The CRA team attended the Women's Public Leadership Network National Summit in San Diego at the invitation of the National Retail Federation, a sponsor of the event. The Summit included a panel on workforce development, which CRA President and CEO Rachel Michelin spoke on alongside Molly Determan of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council and Pennsylvania State Representative Kristin Marcell. WPL Network's mission is to inspire women to seek public office.

CRA President Rachel Michelin Gives Keynote Address at San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership Economic Forecast Summit

CRA President Rachel Michelin provided the keynote address at the San Gabriel Valley Economic Forecast Summit, which brought together business leaders from across the state for an up-to-the-minute discussion of where the economy is headed. Read more about the event and Rachel's address here. Thank you to the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership for the invitation.

CRA President Rachel Michelin Joins a National Discussion on Organized Retail Crime

Thank you to the National Retail Federation for

for the invitation to participate on a virtual panel discussion focused on Organized Retail Crime. CRA President Rachel Michelin gave updates on the funding CRA secured in the California State Budget last year for expanding the California Highway Patrol Task Forces, which will been instrumental in helping local law enforcement address retail crime. Rachel also discussed current ORC related legislation in CA.

Additional CRA Outreach Activities

The grant funding CRA secured in the State Budget last year through extensive advocacy outreach is now open for applications. CRA has reached out to local law enforcement to make them aware of the grant application availability and process (we recently met with the City of Atascadero's Police Department and have more meetings scheduled with local LE). See below for links to each of the webpages where the grant application and other information is available. Applicants must submit proposals before 5:00 P.M. (PST) on July 7, 2023. If the proposal is accepted the grant will last from October 1, 2023 until December 31, 2026. Please forward this information to any of your colleagues who are engaged in retail theft/public safety in California.

Organized Retail Theft Prevention Grant Program

Virtual Bidders’ Conference Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 10:00 A.M.

https://www.bscc.ca.gov/organized-retail-theft-grant-program/

Organized Retail Theft Vertical Prosecution Grant Program

Virtual Bidders’ Conference Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at 10:00 A.M.

https://www.bscc.ca.gov/organized-retail-theft-vertical-prosecution-grant-program/

CRA also met with San Francisco County Supervisor Ahsha Safai during his Organized Retail Crime Working Group session held this week.

CRA participated in a lunch with Assembly Speaker Designee Robert Rivas.

CRA Monthly Policy Calls

The following includes the remainder of the 2023 monthly policy call calendar covering this year's legislative session (dates are subject to change). For CRA members' designated contacts who are not regularly receiving these policy call reminders and calendar invites, please email cra@calretailers.com to be added moving forward. Policy calls are held on Fridays at 11:00am PT (new time!).

May 12
June 9
July 14
No call in August
September 8

In The News