Bill Text: CA SB73 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Employment policy: voluntary veterans’ preference.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 10-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-25 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [SB73 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB73-Amended.html
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Amended
IN
Senate
May 18, 2023 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
March 22, 2023 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 73
| Introduced by Senator Seyarto (Coauthors: Senators Jones, Nguyen, Niello, and Ochoa Bogh) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Chen, Dixon, Flora, Lackey, and Mathis) |
January 11, 2023 |
An act to add and repeal Article 3 (commencing with Section 12958) to of Chapter 6 of Part 2.8 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 73, as amended, Seyarto.
Employment policy: voluntary veterans’ preference.
Under existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification or applicable security regulations established by the United States or the State of California, to refuse to hire or employ a person or to refuse to select a person for a training program leading to employment, or to bar or discharge a person from employment or a training program leading to employment, or to discriminate against a person in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status of that person. FEHA provides
that nothing in that act relating to discrimination on account of sex affects the right of an employer to use veteran status as a factor in employee selection or to give special consideration to Vietnam-era veterans. FEHA is enforced by the Civil Rights Department, which is in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, and is under the direction of an executive officer known as the Director of Civil Rights.
This bill would enact the Voluntary Veterans’ Preference Employment Policy Act to authorize a private employer to establish and maintain a written veterans’ preference employment policy, to be applied uniformly to hiring decisions, to give a voluntary preference for hiring a veteran over another qualified applicant. The bill would require a private employer with a veterans’ preference employment policy to annually report to the Civil Rights Department the number of veterans hired under the preference policy and any demographic information about those
veterans that the employer obtained in response to the department’s reporting requirements. Under the bill, failure to submit that report would render any preference granted by the employer ineligible for the protections provided by this bill. The bill would require the department to report that information, in addition to the number of discrimination claims received based on an employer’s veterans’ preference employment policy, to specified legislative policy committees by July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2028.
This bill would provide that the granting of a veterans’ preference pursuant to the bill, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, the antidiscrimination provisions of FEHA. The bill would require the Department of Veterans
Affairs to assist any private employer in determining if an applicant is a veteran, to the extent permitted by law. The bill would prohibit a veterans’ preference employment policy from being established or applied for the purpose or with the effect of unlawfully discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of a protected classification, as specified.
The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2029.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Article 3 (commencing with Section 12958) is added to Chapter 6 of Part 2.8 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:Article 3. Voluntary Veterans’ Preference Employment Policies
12958.
This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the Voluntary Veterans’ Preference Employment Policy Act.12958.1.
(a) It is the intent of this act that this preference will benefit veterans of all protected classes, including women and LGBTQIA persons. An employer’s adoption of a voluntary veterans’ preference employment policy is not intended to have the effect of discriminating against any veteran who is a member of any other protected classification in subdivision (a) of Section 12940.(b) As used in this article:
(1) “DD Form 214, Member-4” means United States Department of Defense Form 214 or a similarly effective form issued by that department relating to separation from military service.
(2) “Private employer” means a business entity in the private sector of this state with one or more employees.
(3) “Veteran” means a person who has served full time in the Armed Forces in time of national emergency or state military emergency or during any expedition of the Armed Forces and who has been discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. For the purposes of this section, the term “conditions other than dishonorable” includes a discharge or release due to a violation of subdivision (b) of former Section 645 of Title 10 of the United States Code, repealed as of December 22, 2010, or policies or regulations adopted to implement that section.
(4) “Veterans’ preference employment policy” means a private employer’s voluntary preference for hiring a veteran over another qualified applicant.
12958.2.
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a private employer may establish and maintain a written veterans’ preference employment policy, which shall be applied uniformly to hiring decisions.(b) An employer who adopts a voluntary veterans’ preference employment policy shall annually report to the Civil Rights Department, in a manner prescribed by the department, the number of veterans hired in that reporting year under the preference policy and any demographic information about these veterans that the employer obtained in response to the department’s reporting requirements. Failure to submit a report required by this subdivision shall render any preference granted
by the employer ineligible for the protections of this article.
(c) An employer with a veterans’ preference employment policy shall accept as proof of an individual’s status as a veteran if the veteran submits to the employer any of the following:
(1) A DD Form 214, Member-4.
(2) A current and valid driver’s license with the word “VETERAN” printed on its face pursuant to Section 12811 of the Vehicle Code.
(3) A current and valid identification card with the word “VETERAN” printed on its face pursuant to Section 12811 of the Vehicle Code.
(d) The granting of a veterans’ preference pursuant to this
article, in and of itself, shall be deemed not to violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law or regulation, including, but not limited to, this chapter.
(e) The Department of Veterans Affairs shall assist any private employer in determining if an applicant is a veteran, to the extent permitted by law.
(f) This section shall not be construed to authorize the establishment or use of a veterans’ preference employment policy for the purpose or with the effect of unlawfully discriminating against an employment applicant on the basis of any protected classification in subdivision (a) of Section 12940.
(g) The Civil Rights Department shall
report, in a manner it prescribes, by July 1, 2026, and July 1, 2028, the information provided in subdivision (b) and the number of discrimination claims received based on an employer’s veterans’ preference employment policy to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement, and the Assembly and Senate Committees on Military and Veterans Affairs.
