Posted on February 3rd, 2022
Below is a complete transcript of this video.
What’s up fellow entrepreneurs today. I wanna talk about new California Senate bill 646 related to PAGA, but first I’m an attorney, but I’m not your attorney. So please seek out competent legal counsel for your specific question or concern.
All right. So SB 646 is a new law that will exempt certain janitorial companies from PA claims. So this is clearly a win for some janitorial companies in California, but why would PA be applied to most every other industry in California except unionized janitorial workers? I’m not sure.
For those of you not familiar with PGA, it’s a California statute that enables workers to file lawsuits against lawyers for certain labor violations. Employees act as private attorneys general and can pursue civil penalties as if there were a state a as if they were a state agency, it may have started as an effort to help workers, but PA has now become an exploitative system that has created needless lawsuits.
And for the most part only benefit attorneys, small oversights or easily corrected offenses can lead to large penalties, fines and legal fees for employers.
So again, if PAA isn’t working, why is SB 6 46, an exemption for janitorial unions and not a complete overhaul of PAA? The author of S B 6 46, Senator Robert Headberg said himself.
That PA is a powerful tool for underrepresented workers, but PAA also puts enormous pressure on employers to settle claims regardless of the validity of those claims.
However, he did not explain why his friends in the services union should be exempt while everyone else’s subject to bad legislation.
The S E I U the union that is the beneficiary of favorable legislation claims it is a firm supporter and defender of the private attorney’s general act, but also work to carve out its members from the bill suspicious, double speak.
If you ask me either P has harmful to all businesses or it’s not harmful to any business there, isn’t some reason why specific businesses that happen to be unionized are more susceptible to PA claims.
I think PA claims are more harmful to small businesses because small businesses are less likely to be able to withstand costly defenses for either false claims or small offenses.
Fortunately, for them it looks like big unions have figured out how to get exclusions for PGA harm, even though the they’re not the most affected by this terrible legislation.
Surprisingly, this is not the only union that is lobbied to end PA specifically for their industry. Only in 2018 unionized construction workers were carved out of PAA.
Also, now that unionize janitorial workers have gotten their carve out too. I think it’s only a matter of time before more United industries lobby politicians for their safe Harbor, California politicians continue to pretend that PA is a good law while simultaneously protecting their large donors from PA’s unforgiving remedies California’s war on small business continues.
Till next time be productive.
