New Sheriff in Town

All us HR types figured we see a shift to employee-supportive legislation once Arnold left, and there is much evidence to support it.

Recent events include the passage of a bill allowing Agriculture Workers to unionize without a secret ballot election.

Pending legislation (AB 325) includes a mandate that employers provide up to 4 unpaid bereavement days and the employee can sue the employer if they feel discriminated against because they requested or took the leave. The bill is in committee.

AB 877 is a Gender Non-Discrimination Act that adds transgender employees to the protected class. Sexual orientation is already protected from discrimination and this law would add gender identity. This bill has passed the Assembly and is now under review in the Senate.

We can recite my mantra in unison: If we hadn't chained women and children to sewing machines for 18 hours a day in airless, locked warehouses, we wouldn't have needed unions and these kinds of laws. Same goes for farm labor, the use of short hoes and such. In the name of profit we have been horrible to our employees for over a hunderd years and now we are paying for the sins of our fathers.

The good news is that in the last 20 years our management techniques have reflected the realization that our employees are the key to our success. If we take care of them, they take care of the customers, and help breed our success.

Now we wait for the tipping point: when the majority of employers are so good to employees that these laws are no longer needed. My experience working with the wide variety of employers I do offers me hope that this point may be seen in the next 20 years.