Of Julius Jung
Thursday, July 29, 2021 | 0
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration appears to be pressuring Senator Steven Bradford to cut his anti-discrimination law, Senate Law 788.
Julius Jung
SB 788 would prohibit discrimination in division based on factors of race, belief, national origin, gender, marital status, gender, and sexual identity or orientation. Originally the bill included factors such as age and genetics, but those were dropped in a June 17 amendment.
The bill was originally approved by the California Senate by 37 votes to 0 on June 2, and that was before age and genetics language was dropped.
Workers’ representatives were not happy that age and genetics were thrown away, but still believe that the remaining anti-discrimination law is in the interests of fairness and justice.
On July 1, the California Assembly passed the bill with 77 votes to zero. The bill is currently back in the Senate, which must now agree that the age and genetics language has been removed.
The analysis by the Senate on July 1 shows that no formal objection from stakeholders was registered. Sponsors include the California Labor Federation, UFCW, Teamsters, firefighters and law enforcement agencies.
But despite widespread approval of the legislation, WorkCompCentral reporter Mark Powell filed a report this week indicating that representatives of the Newsom administration have contacted Bradford about further watering down the bill.
It is not clear whether Bradford will agree.
It seems rather surprising that at a time when Newsom is on very shaky political ground, his appointments seek to weaken that law. Obviously there are employees in the Division of Workers’ Compensation and Department of Industrial Relations who are still ready to swing to the tunes of the employer-insurer coalition that has been so dominant under the government. Schwarzenegger and Brown.
Recent polls on the recall have tightened. The California workforce has not been a prominent political issue lately and probably will not be in the near future. However, the governor must motivate his base to vote in the recall.
Does his government really want to intersect the unions and workers in California who “got him dancing”?
Julius Young is an attorney for candidates and an associate at Boxer & Gerson law firm of Oakland. This column was reprinted from his Workers Comp Zone blog on the company’s website with his permission.
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