AB 1122 Addresses Employment Discrimination

On March 11, Assembly Members Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Chris Holden (D-Los Angeles) amended their Assembly Bill 1122 related to employment discrimination. The bill would add Section 12940.2 to the Government Code.

Section One of the bill would add Government Code Section 12940.2 and define the following terms:

• “protected group” to mean membership in a subgroup of a category listed below;
• “overrepresented” to mean the protected group constitutes a higher percentage of the type of job in question in the employer’s workforce than the percent of the protected group in the type of job in the relevant general workforce;
• “underrepresented” to mean the protected group, to a statistically significant degree, constitutes a lower percentage of the type of job in the relevant general workforce than would be expected by the percentage of the protected group in the general population.

The bill would specify that, under this chapter of the Government Code (the Fair Employment and Housing Act), it is not a violation of the rights of any individual who is not chosen for an employer to hire or promote a member of a protected group, if both of the following apply:

• The employer determines that the individual hired or promoted is qualified for the job.
• The individual hired or promoted is a member of a protected group that is underrepresented in the type of job in question in the relevant general workforce.

However, that subdivision would not apply if either of the following apply:

• The individual hired or promoted is a member of a protected group that, prior to the selection of the individual, was overrepresented in the type of job in the employer’s workforce.
• An individual challenging the hire or promotion decision is a member of a protected group that is meaningfully underrepresented in the type of job in the relevant general workforce and there is substantial evidence that the individual’s protected status was a substantial factor in the hire or promotion decision.

This bill will likely be heard in its first policy committee in March.