Thursday, December 19, 2024

Payback is a Bitch State lawmakers dealt California's card room industry a bad hand, passing legislation that allows its competitor, tribal casinos, to sue card rooms. As payback, card rooms spent millions of dollars to oppose four lawmakers who were key to the law's passage - and three lost their races.

As CalMatters explained, card rooms spent more than $3 million targeting four legislators:

·        Josh Newman of Fullerton, who lost his Senate seat;

·        Evan Low of Cupertino, who lost a race for Congress;

·        Brian Maienschein, who unsuccessfully ran for San Diego city attorney;

·        Republican Assemblymember Laurie Davies of Oceanside, who won reelection by only 3,870 votes (out of a total of 230,546 votes).

The defeat of Newman, who introduced the card room bill, is notable given that he was an incumbent Democrat who lost to a Republican, marking the first time since 1980 that a GOP lawmaker flipped a Democratic Senate seat in a presidential election. He was also targeted by a typically Democratic-friendly University of California workers union after he did not support a bill it backed in the Legislature. But in doing so, the union may have helped elect a Republican who has a history of opposing organized labor. Newman has already formed a campaign committee to run again in 2026. Story

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New Notice Published to Comply with Labor Code Section 1102.8 Pursuant to Assembly Bill (AB 2299), the Labor Commissioner was required to develop a model list of employee rights and responsibilities under existing whistleblower laws. The Labor Commissioner had previously issued a sample notice which included a disclaimer that the Labor Commissioner did not guarantee its posting fulfilled the requirements of California law. Recently, the Labor Commissioner published an updated notice and confirmed this notice meets the requirements of Labor Code section 1102.8(a)-(b). Employers should ensure they are using the updated notice effective January 1, 2025. More

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Former Amazon Exec Reportedly Eyed to Lead Trump’s OSHA

• Multiple news outlets have reported that former Amazon executive Heather MacDougall is among those under consideration to run OSHA.
• However, the reports also noted that there is no indication that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has begun to seriously consider candidates for the role.
• According to the reports, MacDougall oversaw workplace health and safety at Amazon, the country’s second-largest private employer, from 2019 to 2022. During that period, Amazon faced criticism from workers, labor advocates and some lawmakers for high injury rates and its coronavirus response in warehouses.
• Amazon said in July that the company’s recordable injury rate has improved significantly since 2019. More

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California Updates Paid Sick Leave FAQs: What Employers Need to Know The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has released updated guidance clarifying how the state’s latest statutory enactments will impact employers’ paid sick leave obligations.  Specifically, as we reported here, Assembly Bill (AB) 2499 and Senate Bill (SB) 1105 expand the permissible reasons for which employees can use paid sick leave. The updated FAQs now explain that, in addition to existing uses of paid sick leave, employees may take paid sick leave for other reasons. Story

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Senate Rejects Lauren McFerran’s Nomination to the NLRB On December 11, 2024, the Senate voted against ending debate on the nomination of Lauren McFerran to serve another term on the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote was 49-50. Two Senators who caucus with the Democrats voted against the nomination - Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kirsten Sinema (I-AZ). Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) did not vote. This is seen as a major win for the business community. McFerran’s tenure as Chair of the Board throughout the Biden administration has included severe criticisms from federal courts, Congress, and the Board’s own Office of the Inspector General. Moreover, the policies she has pursued while leading the agency have been rejected by the courts and Congress on a bipartisan basis. If confirmed, McFerran would have locked in Democratic control over the NLRB until August 2026, essentially blocking President-Elect Trump from controlling the agency’s policy agenda for over a year and a half into his second term in office. The Board will now remain with a 2-1 Democratic majority until President-Elect Trump nominates – and the Senate confirms – two new Board members to fill the current vacancies.

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Trump Throws Support Behind Longshoremen's Union in Port Automation Dispute With an economy-crippling strike expected to resume at East and Gulf Coast ports on January 15th—a mere five days before President-elect Trump returns to the White House—Trump announced his support for the International Longshoremen’s Association in its fight against automation with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX). In a Truth Social post on Thursday evening, Trump announced that he had met with ILA President Harold Daggett and his son, ILA Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett, and announced his support for the union and its members. “I’ve studied automation and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump stated on Thursday. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.” Read Trump’s post in full here.

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96.5% of New Jobs in California Were Government Jobs The Hoover Institution reported, "It is well known that California has been among the worst-performing states in the country in terms of job growth. But the latest statistics show that nearly all jobs that are being created in California are government jobs. Between January 2022 and June 2024, total California jobs grew by about 156,000, with government jobs accounting for 96.5 percent of that growth." Please click here to read the full article.