Bill Text: CA AB1976 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Employment: lactation accommodation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-30 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 940, Statutes of 2018. [AB1976 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB1976-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  August 06, 2018

Amended  IN  Senate  June 26, 2018

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1976

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Introduced by Assembly Member Limón
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Gonzalez Fletcher)

January 31, 2018

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An act to amend Section 1031 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1976, as amended, Limón. Employment: lactation accommodation.

Existing law requires every employer to provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child and requires an employer to make reasonable efforts to provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a toilet stall, in close proximity to the employee’s work area for the employee to express milk in private. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions subject to a civil penalty and makes the Labor Commissioner responsible for enforcement.

This bill would instead require an employer to make reasonable efforts to provide an employee with use of a room or other location, other than a bathroom, for these purposes. The bill would deem an employer to be in compliance with the requirement of providing a lactation location if the employer makes available a temporary lactation location that meets specified conditions, including that the temporary lactation location be used only for lactation purposes. purposes while an employee expresses milk. The bill would deem an agricultural employer to be in compliance with the requirement of providing a lactation location if the agricultural employer provides an employee with a private, enclosed, shaded, and air conditioned air-conditioned space, as specified. The bill would exempt an employer from the requirement to provide a room or location other than a bathroom for expressing milk, if the employer can demonstrate to the Department of Industrial Relations that this requirement would impose an undue hardship, but would require that employer to ensure that the room or location utilized for expressing milk is not a bathroom stall.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1031 of the Labor Code is amended to read:

1031.

 (a) An employer shall make reasonable efforts to provide an employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a bathroom, in close proximity to the employee’s work area, for the employee to express milk in private. The room or location may include the place where the employee normally works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.

(b)  An employer who makes a temporary lactation location available to an employee shall be deemed to be in compliance with this section if all of the following conditions are met:

(1)  The employer is unable to provide a permanent lactation location because of operational, financial, or space limitations.

(2)  The temporary lactation location is private and free from intrusion while an employee expresses milk.

(3)  The temporary lactation location is used only for lactation purposes. purposes while an employee expresses milk.

(4)  The temporary lactation location otherwise meets the requirements of state law concerning lactation accommodation.

(c) An agricultural employer, as defined in Section 1140.4, shall be deemed to be in compliance with this section if the agricultural employer provides an employee wanting to express milk with a private, enclosed, shaded, and air conditioned air-conditioned space, including, but not limited to, the cab of a truck or tractor.

(d) (1) An employer shall not be subject to the amendments made to subdivision (a) by the act adding this paragraph if that employer can demonstrate to the department that the requirement of those amendments would impose an undue hardship when considered in relation to the size, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), an employer that is not subject to those amendments shall ensure that the room or location utilized for expressing milk is not a bathroom stall.