• Among the bills authored by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) this year, the following will take effect on Jan. 1:
Senate Bill 358, the California Fair Pay Act: The bill will give women important new tools to challenge wage discrimination at work. It will ensure that women are paid equally for work that is substantially similar to the work of their male colleagues, and that they don’t face retaliation if they discuss or ask how much their male colleagues are paid.
SB 295, Annual Pipeline Inspections: One of Jackson’s two bills authored in response to the oil spill in Santa Barbara County this year, SB 295 will require annual oil pipeline inspections by the state Fire Marshal.
SB 414, the Rapid Oil Response Act: Also authored in response to the Refugio Oil Spill, this bill seeks to make oil spill response faster and more effective. It: 1. directs the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) to report to the Legislature on how to best utilize commercial fishing vessels and crews in response to an oil spill, 2. requires OSPR to notify the Legislature within three days if dispersants are used in response to an oil spill, and 3. requires OSPR to study the best achievable technology for oil spill cleanup and use that technology to respond to spills.
SB 186, Community Colleges and Off-Campus Sexual Assault: SB 186 will allow community college districts to extend their jurisdictions beyond their campus borders and use their existing disciplinary process to discipline, expel, or suspend students for off-campus sexual assault and sexual exploitation. UC and CSU campuses already have such extended jurisdictions in place. But until now, community colleges have had little recourse when inappropriate student behavior occurs outside campus boundaries.
SB 221, the California Wounded Warriors Transitional Leave Act: Continuing her work to support veterans, this Jackson bill will give new state employees who are disabled veterans up to 96 hours of sick leave during their first year in the state workforce to attend medical and VA appointments during work hours without having to take unpaid leave.
SB 342, Earn and Learn: This bill addresses the need for a highly-skilled workforce and effective job training for those with barriers to employment.
SB 387, State Bar Dues: This bill reauthorizes the State Bar of California to collect active membership dues for 2016, while also putting important reforms in place in response to a recent audit of the organization.
SB 579, Helping Workers with Childcare Needs: This bill expands California’s Family School Partnership Act to allow parents to take job-protected time off to respond to child care or school emergencies or to take time off from work to find and enroll children in child care or school. Currently, the Act provides up to 40 hours of job-protected, unpaid time off per year to eligible parents to participate in activities at his or her child’s school or licensed day care facility, such as parent-teacher conferences or graduations.
SB 695, Consent Education for High School Students: This bill aims to prevent sexual assault by requiring public high school health classes to provide students instruction on affirmative consent, sexual harassment, assault, violence, and the importance of developing positive and healthy relationships.
This article appears in Dec 24-31, 2015.