Bill Text: CA SB731 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled

California Senate Bill 731

Bill Title: Employment discrimination: unlawful practices: work from home: disability.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Veto sustained. [SB731 Detail]

Download: California-2023-SB731-Enrolled.html

Enrolled September 11, 2023

Passed IN Senate September 07, 2023

Passed IN Assembly September 06, 2023

Amended IN Assembly September 01, 2023

Amended IN Assembly June 19, 2023

Amended IN Senate April 20, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 731

Introduced by Senator Ashby
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Kalra and Ortega)

February 17, 2023

An act to add Section 12940.2 to the Government Code, relating to employment.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 731, Ashby. Employment discrimination: unlawful practices: work from home: disability.

Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), protects the right to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination because of prescribed characteristics. FEHA makes various employment practices unlawful and empowers the Civil Rights Department to investigate and prosecute complaints alleging unlawful practices. FEHA makes it an unlawful practice for an employer or other entity to fail to make reasonable accommodation for the known physical or mental disability of an applicant or employee. FEHA further makes it an unlawful practice for an employer or other entity to fail to engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process with the employee or applicant to determine effective reasonable accommodations, if any, in response to a request for reasonable accommodation by an employee or applicant with a known physical or mental disability or known medical condition.

This bill would make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail to provide to an employee who is working from home at least 30 calendar days’ advance notice before requiring the employee to return to work in person. The bill would prohibit an employee from being required to return to work in person until the employer provides notice in accordance with the bill. The bill would require that notice be written and sent by mail or email and include, at a minimum, prescribed text with information about the rights of an employee to reasonable accommodation for a disability. The bill would establish specified restrictions on the interpretation of its provisions.

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

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

SECTION 1.

Section 12940.2 is added to the Government Code, to read:

12940.2.

(a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail to provide to an employee who is working from home at least 30 calendar days’ advance notice before requiring the employee to return to work in person. An employee shall not be required to return to work in person until the employer provides notice in accordance with this section.

(b) The notice required pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be written and sent by mail or email and shall include, at a minimum, the following text:

“You have the right to ask your employer to allow you to continue working remotely as an accommodation if you have a disability. Your employer is required to engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process to determine if there are effective reasonable accommodations for your disability, including working remotely. If you are able to perform all of your essential job functions while working remotely, your employer must grant your request unless it would create an undue hardship for your employer, an alternative reasonable accommodation is available, or you do not meet the definition of disability under the law. You can learn more about your rights at https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/accommodation/.”

(1) Diminish either an employer’s obligations with respect to, or an employee’s rights to, reasonable accommodation for a disability, including, but not limited to, situations in which a reasonable accommodation allowing the employee to work from home preexisted the provision of a notice pursuant to this section.

(2) Require an employee who is working from home as a reasonable accommodation at the time the notice is provided to reenter an interactive process as a result of notice pursuant to this section.

(3) Authorize an employer to remove or otherwise change an existing reasonable accommodation, except at an employee’s request or where otherwise authorized by this part.