Legal Alerts

Governor Brown Signed AB 499 and SB 776 Into Law on August 27, 2013

AB 499 - Judicial Proceedings: Injunctions Prohibiting Harassment

On August 27, 2013, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed AB 499 into law expanding the protection period for civil harassment restraining orders in California. AB 499 amends California Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6, which currently provides that a person who has suffered harassment may seek a temporary restraining order and an injunction prohibiting harassment. If issued, the injunction would be in effect for a period of up to 3 years and may be renewed for a period of up to 3 years. 

Effectively July 1, 2014, AB 499 extends the period for which the injunction may remain in effect to up to 5 years and the renewal period to up to 5 years.

The bill defines “harassment” as “unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence, or a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose. The course of conduct must be such as would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and must actually cause substantial emotional distress to the petitioner.” 

“Course of conduct” is “a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose, including following or stalking an individual, making harassing telephone calls to an individual, or sending harassing correspondence to an individual by any means, including, but not limited to, the use of public or private mails, interoffice mail, facsimile, or computer email.” Of note, constitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of “course of conduct.”

SB 776 - Public Works: Prevailing Wage Rates: Employer Payment Credits

Also on August 27, 2013, Governor Brown signed SB 776, amending California Labor Code section 1773.1 which relates to employer payment credits for the general prevailing rate of per diem wages. 

Current law defines the term “public works” for purposes of payment of prevailing wages, the regulation of working hours, and the securing of workers’ compensation for public works projects. The law requires that, except as specified, no less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages, as determined by the Director of Industrial Relations, be paid to workers employed on public works projects, and imposes misdemeanor penalties for certain violations of this requirement.

Under current law, employer payments are a credit against the obligation to pay the general prevailing rate of per diem wages, except credit is not granted for benefits required under state or federal law. Employer payments include the rate of contribution made by the employer to a trustee or third person pursuant to a plan, fund, or program; the rate of actual costs to the employer anticipated in providing benefits to workers pursuant to a specified enforceable commitment; and payments to the California Apprenticeship Council.

SB 776 provides that an employer may take a credit for those specified employer payments, even if those payments are not made during the same pay period for which credit is taken, if the employer regularly makes those payments on no less than a quarterly basis. This bill would prohibit a credit from being granted for employer payments made to monitor and enforce laws related to public works if those payments are not required by a collective bargaining agreement.

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• Labor & Employment