Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Proposed CA law: ‘Family Caregiver’ Added to Prohibited Discrimination Code
AB 524 would hold employment without discrimination because of family caregiver status as a civil right
By Chris Micheli, February 25, 2023 8:44 am
Assembly Bill 524 by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) was introduced to add family caregiver status to the list of prohibited bases of discrimination in this state. AB 524 would amend Government Code Sections 12920, 12921, 12926, and 12940.
AB 524 would prohibit employment discrimination on account of family caregiver status and would recognize the opportunity to seek, obtain, and hold employment without discrimination because of family caregiver status as a civil right. Section 1 of the bill would amend Government Code Section 12920 to add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics that it is the public policy of this state to protect and safeguard.
Section 2 of the bill would amend Government Code Section 12921 to add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics for which employment discrimination is prohibited. Section 3 of the bill would amend Government Code Section 12926 to add “family caregiver status” to the definition of the phrase “on the bases enumerated in this part.”
In addition, the bill would add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics for which discrimination can also occur due to a “perception that the person has any of those characteristics or that the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics.”
And, the bill would define the term “family caregiver status” to mean a person who is a contributor to the care of one or more family members. For purposes of this subdivision, “family member” means a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or any other individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
Section 4 of the bill would amend Government Code Section 12940 to add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics for which it is an unlawful employment practice to discrimination against a person with any of these listed characteristics. Nonetheless, this provision is not to affect the right of an employer to reasonably regulate the working of spouses in the same place of employment or prohibit health plans from providing better benefits to employees with dependents.
In addition, for a labor organization, it would add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics that are prohibited from being excluded or restricted from membership in a union, or to discriminate against such a person, as well as to prohibit discrimination on such a basis for apprenticeship training programs.
Finally, it would add “family caregiver status” to the list of 19 current characteristics that are prohibited from being discriminated against in any publications, nonjob-related inquiries, as well as prohibitions against harassment of employees, applicants for employment, unpaid interns, and volunteers.
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Oh look, it’s creepy Democrat Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks from the dystopian City of Oakland who supports infanticide. She’s now pushing a new bill for a problem that doesn’t exist? How many family caregivers are being discriminated against when seeking employment?
It’s “interesting” that the odious Dem/Marxists such as Job-Killing Union Hack Lorena Gonzalez and/or others would recruit the Dead-Shark-Eyed Asm Buffy Wicks to be the face of their further attempts to take away normal people’s rights and freedoms given that Asm Buffy Wicks’ face has such a TERRIBLE reputation.
Let me see if I have this right: AB 524 essentially says that in your most intimate and sacred setting, your HOME, the hiring and firing of “caregivers” —– which would presumably run the gamut —- would be the purview of the State of California and not YOU. YOU would apparently run the risk of being sued for “discrimination” if you failed to hire who the State wanted you to hire or if you fired (even with good reason) a “family caregiver” employed in YOUR HOME. Considering CA policies that have contributed to a dicier-than-ever employee pool, it sure as heck looks like YOU, the “caregiver” employer, would be screwed if, God forbid, AB 524 were to become law.
What’s more, included in this bill is an attempt to UNIONIZE all “family caregivers.” What a nightmare.
If I have misinterpreted the upshot of this bill, AB 524, someone needs to please tell me and explain what it is actually all about. Otherwise we must be sure to contact our legislative representatives and INSIST they Vote NO on this sneaky and ruinous AB 524:
Assemblymembers and their contact info can be found here.
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers
Senators here:
http://www.senate.ca.gov/senators
As the population ages and care facilities increase costs there is a critical need for legislation to help care providers at home. whether professional or just family members. For example, the deductibility of elder care costs and expenses by family members.
To address the attempt-to-unionize aspect of this bill, if that unionization should succeed, quality of care would go way down while union demands — and thus costs — would shoot up. All of this while those who must use “caregiver” services lack organization (and time, money, energy) to fight such abuses. We’ve seen it time and time again. E.g., under public employee unionization, teachers, nurses, doctors, etc., caught up in the union’s desire to ensure its own survival and power, shift to becoming focused only on themselves and no longer on the student or patient, who become irrelevant and are only used as props to justify the employee’s existence. Obviously this is a general statement and not true for all individuals.
Just another area government wants to control — communism continues to creep in
Glad to see we’re working on the important stuff.
She looks rough like a meth addict…or maybe she’s not getting enough adrenochrome? Democrats seem to be into certain substances?
Moral obligation or a desire to do what is right by your parent that once cared for you is now a civil right???
It is a farce to believe that unionization equates to a civil right, sanctioned by state government and funded by the taxpayer! Who would stop another from caring for a family member, it is a choice to be made by each individual. It is an admirable position that does not need to be a law!
Figure it out people, most of us humans already have.
Buffy Wicks everything you write up has a hidden agenda! I wish you cared about pre born life , as you do about manufactured civil rights!
We live in la la land.
I have a friend who lives in Point Richmond that needs help appealing the EDD’s decision at an upcoming hearing,
so I was searching for who her representatives are that are available to assist their constituents with exactly this kind of thing. What I found did not surprise me.
Unfortunately, Buffy Wicks reps Point Richmond and, unlike her colleagues , her website does not have the
‘EDD assistance’ link. Just links on where she will be and how to schedule her presence, or something like that.