Legislative Update 2025 (Part Two): New Job Posting & Employment Discrimination Protections

January 22, 2025 by Beeson Tayer & Bodine

 

Driver’s License Discrimination Ban (SB 1100)

By: Grant Reed-Hoos

This bill, effective January 1, 2025, prohibits employers from advertising that a position requires a driver’s license unless the employer reasonably believes both that the position requires driving and that an alternative form of transportation would require additional travel time or cost to the employer.

SB 1100 builds upon the protections of a 2014 law, which made it a violation for employers to discriminate against individuals with driver’s licenses issued to undocumented workers. This new law protects undocumented workers from being identified by their employer for non-work related reasons and allows people with disabilities who are unable to drive to obtain non-driving positions without discrimination.

 

Public Agencies Must Now Be More Direct With Local Bargaining Units About Vacancies (AB 2561)

By: Daniel M. Perle

Starting January 1, 2025, this bill requires all Meyers-Milias-Brown Act employers, at least once per fiscal year, to present at a public hearing the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts. If the governing board of the agency will be adopting an annual or multiyear budget during the fiscal year, the board must conduct this hearing before that budget is adopted. At the hearing, the employer must identify any “necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process.” Additionally, the union which covers the bargaining unit affected by the vacancies has the right to make a presentation at this hearing.

If the vacancy rate within a single bargaining unit is 20% or more for authorized full-time positions, the union has the right to request several pieces of information to be presented at the hearing. These include: the total number of job vacancies within the bargaining unit; the total number of applicants for these vacant positions; the average number of days to complete the hiring process from when a position is posted; and opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions.

 

Local Enforcement of Employment Discrimination Laws (SB 1340)

By: Laura Christensen Garcia

SB 1340, which took effect on January 1, 2025, allows any political subdivision of the state to enact and enforce anti-discrimination laws that are at least as protective as state law. Current law provides that the Legislature occupies the field of enforcing the Fair Employment & Housing Act’s (FEHA) prohibition on workplace discrimination to the exclusion of any city, city and county, county, or other political subdivision of the state. Enactment of this new bill means that local jurisdictions can now enforce local laws prohibiting employment discrimination that offer protections at least as good as those provided by FEHA, as long as their enforcement efforts comply with established procedures. SB 1340 includes a tolling provision which pauses FEHA’s one-year limitations period during any enforcement of a local anti-discrimination law.

 

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