CRA Spring Newsletter: Legislative, Regulatory and Public Affairs Updates

CRA Spring Newsletter

April 19, 2021 | CRA Spring Newsletter: Legislative, Regulatory and Public Affairs Updates

Message from the President

Things continue to move at a rapid pace in California as we are in the busy time of the year for legislative and regulatory action. The CRA team is working on several fronts on behalf of our members. I hope you will take a few minutes and read through this newsletter, so you have the most up to date information on what is going on in the state.

We are still monitoring the state’s full re-opening that is set to take place on June 15^th, if the state maintains a low positivity rate and the vaccine roll-out continues to be successful. What does a “full” re-opening mean? What we are hearing NO capacity limits for businesses, but the state mask mandate will still be enforced. There will be a capacity limit of 5,000 for large in-person conferences and we are still debating the use of a vaccine QR code or vaccine “passport” for large scale events. In addition, there is discussion around the full re-opening of schools and the possibility of mandating the vaccine for children 12 and above once it is approved. We are also weighing our strategies to encourage CalOSHA to re-examine the COVID-19 Emergency Regulations considering new guidance from the CDC and the increase in vaccinations in the workforce.

The next few weeks will be busy, and I encourage you to reach out should you have thoughts, concerns or questions about legislative or regulatory action. I can assure you if there is an issue at the local or state level that impacts the retail industry in California, CRA is involved and is working hard to make sure our members have the most up to date information. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me or the CRA team if we can be helpful in anyway.

Rachel

Legislative Updates

Warehouse Production Rules & Limits

CRA and a coalition of businesses all along the supply chain are opposing AB 701 (Gonzalez), which places a number of onerous new rules and limits on warehouse production. Though similar to last year’s AB 3056, this measure is significantly worse. Among other provisions, it requires Cal/OSHA to establish a new standard for warehouse musculoskeletal injuries, establishes anti-retaliation rights for warehouse employees that can be renewed constantly and includes a private right of action for aggrieved employees. The bill faces its first hearing in Assembly Labor Committee on April 22^nd.

Labor-Related Bills Opposed by CRA

Bereavement Leave

CRA sent a letter to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment opposing AB 95 (Low), which would mandate that every employer with 25 or more employees grant employees up to 10 days of bereavement leave upon the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild or domestic partner.

It would also mandate that every employer with fewer than 25 employees grants up to three days of bereavement leave.

The bill further prohibits adverse action against employees and authorizes a brand-new private right of action (in addition to liability under PAGA and administrative enforcement through the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement).

AB 95 should instead be added as a qualifying reason under the California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”), which was just expanded last year to employers with 5 or more employees.

Read the letter here.

Workplace COVID-19 Exposure Notification

CRA sent a letter to the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee opposing AB 654 (Reyes), which would shame both good and bad actors alike with no health and safety benefit.

The bill makes only one substantial change to last year’s bill, which would require that the California Department of Public Health publish on its website a list of every workplace in the state where a COVID- 19 outbreak has occurred.

CRA is concerned that businesses such as retail stores will be identified and shamed on a public agency website even if there is no evidence that COVID was transmitted at the store.

Read the letter here.

Employee Leave

CRA sent a letter to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment opposing AB 1041 (Wicks), which would significantly expand the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and paid sick leave, to allow an employee to take protected and/or paid time off to care for anyone who the employee is related to by blood or who has a relationship to the employee that is “equivalent of a family relationship.”

The existing provisions of CFRA are already challenging, confusing, and burdensome, and small employers who are struggling as a result of this pandemic are overwhelmed by the current law.

Additionally, existing paid sick leave laws are difficult to administer. Expanding both of these laws as proposed under AB 1041, will simply expedite the shutdown of more small businesses in California and further expose employers to unnecessary costs and more litigation.

Read the letter here.

Employment Discrimination and Accommodation

CRA sent a letter to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment and Committee on Judiciary opposing AB 1119 (Wicks). The bill would add any individual with “family responsibilities” as a protected class to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) creating an automatic basis for an individual in that new classification to challenge any adverse employment action.

AB 1119 also imposes a burdensome new accommodation requirement on employers for any employee who has “family responsibilities,” which could include daily or weekly time off requests and unexpected schedule changes.

FEHA applies to employers with five or more employees and includes a costly private right of action, exposing small employers to litigation who make any mistake in the application of these new mandates.

Read both letters here and here.

Occupational Safety and Health Regulations

CRA sent a letter to the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee opposing SB 410 (Leyva), which would deny policy makers critical economic data on the effect of regulations related to workplace safety.

Read the letter here, also available on CRA's member portal.

Workplace Safety

CRA sent a letter to the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee opposing SB 606 authored by Senator Lorena Gonzalez. The bill would:

create a new system of vaguely-defined penalties that would punish even well-intentioned employers with penalties potentially 100x higher than the present;
greatly broaden Cal/OSHA’s scope of enforcement into the Labor Code and Health and Safety Code; and
create unnecessary anti-retaliation protections that will lead to litigation for employers.

Read the letter here.

All letters and previous updates on legislation are available on CRA's member portal.

Gender Neutral Kids' Departments

AB 1084 (Low) on gender-neutral children’s retail departments has been amended. The bill now requires stores to display a “reasonable selection” of the toys, baby care items and/or clothing they sell in a gender-neutral section in the store. It also deletes the bill’s requirements related to internet sales.

Small Business Tax Increase

CRA sent a letter to Assembly Members Santiago, Gonzalez, Kalra, and Lee opposing AB 1253, which would increase taxes on sole proprietors and high-income earners by imposing a personal income tax surcharge at varying rates. Beginning January 1, 2021, the surcharge would impose the following rates in addition to California’s existing highest-in-the-nation income tax:

1 percent on taxable income between $1,181,484 and $2,362,967.
3 percent on taxable income between $2,362,968 and $5,907,419.
3.5 percent on taxable income $5,907,420 or greater.

Read the letter here, also available on CRA's member portal.

AB 1182 (Stone) Marketplace Product Liability

Asm. Mark Stone has introduced AB 1182 to address the issue of product defect liability for online marketplaces. The bill follows last year’s AB 3262 and a number of recent court decisions across the country. AB 1182 defines an “electronic place” and provides that those marketplaces under the definition assume the same liability for a product sold by a third party through their electronic place as they would if they were the retailer. AB 1182 will be heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee in early May.

If you have any questions about this bill please email Steve at steve@calretailers.com.

Critical Clarification Requested for Tax Cut Provisions in Recent Federal Recovery Package

CRA joined CA's business community in sending a letter to the US Treasury asking for immediate clarification on language included in the recent federal recovery legislation that has stalled critical economic recovery efforts. The language in H.R. 1319 is intended to prevent states from using federal stimulus dollars to backfill state-level tax cuts, but, as written, is broad and has been interpreted to prohibit tax credits, fee waivers and other critical economic stimulus and anti-poverty programs.

Read the letters here and here, also available on CRA's member portal.

Environmental-Related Bills

Toxic Air Contaminants Bills Pushed to Two Years

AB 426 (Bauer-Kahan), a measure that would have fundamentally changed the the role of local air districts in regulating pollution has been held as a two-year bill.

The bill would have granted indirect source rule authority over existing sources in conflict with the Federal Clean Air Act, which applies such programs to new or modified sources only, and would have duplicated existing facility-by-facility review and mitigation under the California Environmental Quality Act as well as the myriad regulatory and data collection efforts on mobile sources currently being implemented by CARB.

This bill essentially would allow the proliferation of more proposals like the South Coast AQMD’s proposed Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (ISR).

Read the opposition letter CRA sent to the author here.

Packaging and Carryout Bags

CRA sent a letter opposing AB 1371(Friedman), which would ban the use of several types of packaging materials used to ship products between retailers and customers, as well as for business-to-business transactions.

This bill includes a number of deeply problematic provisions. While stores are looking for more sustainable options for packing and shipping online orders, the timelines in the measure are unrealistic and will leave customers and stores exposed to other negative sustainability consequences such as increased damage and landfilling of shipped products, increased truck trips, etc. Prior to the ban, the bill also requires stores to institute take-back programs for plastic shipping materials and expanded polystyrene. CRA will continue to oppose this measure actively.

Read the letter here.

Fire Safety - Construction Prohibition

CRA sent a letter opposing SB 55 (Stern), which would prohibit any residential or commercial construction in either Very High Fire Severity Zones or State Responsibility Areas (SRAs) unless there is substantial evidence that the local agency has adopted a comprehensive, necessary and appropriate wildfire prevention and community hardening strategy.

Read the letter here.

Battery Recycling

CRA sent a letter in opposition to SB 289 (Newman), which poses substantial concerns for retailers in terms of the breadth of eligible products, impacts to employee safety, store operations, costs and other issues. This measure would require most stores that sell batteries to serve as collection sites for used primary or rechargeable batteries or battery-embedded products.

All letters and previous updates on legislation are available on CRA's member portal.

CRA Master Bill List

Click here to view CRA's latest list of bills the association team is tracking and engaging on.

Visit CRA's member portal to access the latest bill tracking list and legislative letters and contact Steve or Ryan with questions and feedback.

Regulatory Updates

Local Hazard Pay Ordinances Update

CRA has been actively watching the "hero/hazard pay" issue and closely watching to see if a statewide measure gets introduced. Rumors are flying that there may be a budget play to mandate premium pay statewide. So far what we are hearing is it would affect healthcare (still trying to get specifics of what that includes") and now hospitality. The CRA team could see a scenario that any business that was deemed "essential" during COVID would be included. We continue to monitor this issue closely.

CRA's campaign Californians for a Safe and Rapid Recovery and our website jobsnotpolitics is finding success. The Fresno City council first delayed their vote on hazard pay after our campaign released targeted digital ads, submitted over 100 petitions from Fresno residents who are opposed to the ordinance and did a digital "take over" of the Fresno Bee. We have now discovered the item is no longer on the April 22nd agenda meaning, as of now, there is no longer a planned vote.

If there is a statewide push, the coalition CRA has put together and our grassroots strategy could be successful if we need to switch gears and move to a statewide legislative focus.

View the latest Premium Pay local ordinance tracker here, also available on CRA's member portal.

For questions about the campaign please email cra@calretailers.com.

Business Input on Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure

CRA sent a letter to California State Transportation Agency and the California Transportation Commission regarding the need for business and industry input on the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure.

The letter requests more time be allocated to the review and comment process and that CalSTA conduct specific outreach with business leaders, as it has with other stakeholders, to collect important feedback on the plan’s economic impacts.

Read the letter here, also available on CRA's member portal.

Prop 65: Short-Form Warnings

CRA sent comments into the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) on proposed changes to Proposition 65 Short-For Warnings (Title 27, Article 6, Clear and Reasonable Warnings).

The CRA team will continue to keep members updated on developments in this important regulatory proceeding

Read the comments here.

Visit CRA's member portal to access CRA's latest regulatory letters.

SCAQMD Warehouse ISR

The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s proposed Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (ISR) will be voted on at the May 7^th district board meeting. CRA opposed this rule in our own letter as well as a coalition letter. The draft ISR creates a complicated system of tracking and reporting truck trips to and from warehouses and establishes a system of Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions (WAIRE) Points that must be earned by owners and operators of warehouses.

It also creates a “mitigation” fee as an alternative to the acquisition of WAIRE points, at a rate of approximately $.90/sf, but could go as high as $2.00/sf. This rule will not only be costly, but is duplicative of existing efforts to reduce truck-related emissions and fails to demonstrate how it will result in any substantial environmental benefits.

If you have any questions please email Steve at steve@calretailers.com.

CRA News and Activities

Joint CRA/NACDS Californians for a Safe and Rapid Recovery Update

This Thursday, April 22 at 10:00am PDT, CRA and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) will be hosting a Zoom to update our members on the Californians for a Safe and Rapid Recovery (CSRR) efforts. We will be joined by Swing Strategies, whose team has been instrumental in organizing efforts to oppose the premium pay ordinances popping-up throughout the state. This is a great opportunity to get an idea of what has happened and what our planned next steps are.

A calendar invite was provided to members. The Zoom meeting access information will be added Wednesday afternoon. If you plan on attending, please respond to the calendar invite accordingly as we are trying to get an accurate count. If colleagues within your company want to join, please send their email addresses to ryan@calretailers.com and we will get them added. Please also let Ryan know if you did not receive the invite.

This event is for CRA/NACDS members only. You may have received an invite from NACDS as well, if so, just know they are for the same event as we have overlapping members.

CRA 2021 Policy Calls

The remainder of CRA's 2021 monthly policy calls covering this year's legislative session is listed below (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 10:00am PT.

May 21
June 18
July 9
August 20
September 10

COVID-19 Resources and Updates

The CRA team continues to send updates to our members with the latest information and resources related to COVID-19 including city, county and statewide executive orders and guidance, status of color-coded county tier system, latest sector updates and more. This information is also compiled on CRA's COVID-19 Resources and Updates web page. To receive this proprietary information, members can send an email to cra@calretailers.com.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS RESOURCES FOR MEMBERS

CRA Member Portal

CRA members get access to CRA's exclusive online member portal, which contains coalition letters, floor alerts, regulatory comments and testimony that California Retailers Association authored or signed on to during previous Legislative sessions as well as the latest updates on the 2021-2022 legislative session. The portal also contains newsletter, news alert archives and important association governance documents for your reference. If you have not yet received your login credentials and access instructions please email cra@calretailers.com. We are also available to answer any questions you may have regarding portal navigation.