A bill empowering California employees with the right to sue their employers in Superior Court for violations of, among other things, California’s safety rules is sitting on Grey Davis’s desk awaiting signature.

Senate Bill 796 by Sen. Joseph Dunn (D-Garden Grove) is called the "Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004". It raises all of the rules and regulations overseen by the State’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency to the status of civil causes of action.

The major provisions of the bill include the following:

1. "Aggrieved" employees can sue their employers on behalf of themselves and their co-workers for alleged violations of administrative rules and regulations.

2. Damages will be calculated at the rate of $100.00 per day per employee per pay period, or $200.00 per day per employee for repeat violations.

3. In addition, the bill authorizes the Courts to exercise the same discretion as the various departments in assessing penalties. In other words, since the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board can assess penalties of up to $25,000.00 against employers for a serious violation, so can the Courts.

4. The bill provides "reasonable" fees and costs for the "aggrieved" employees’s attorneys.

5. No such action can be maintained if the department or division responsible for enforcing the regulation issues a citation on the same facts and "theories".

Departments and divisions within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency include the Employment Development Department (EDD) and the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). Within DIR is Cal/OSHA, the Labor Commissioner, the WCAB and the Division of Apprentice Standards.

Sen. Dunn sees this bill as a needed remedy for the perceived under-funding of California’s regulatory agencies. We see it as an attack on the administrative hearing process. If you thought the system was too "lawyered up" and expensive now, give SB 796 a chance. Cal/OSHA will be able to pick and choose the complaints it decides to either respond to or ignore, knowing that someone else will take up the slack. It also is plausible that the affected agencies will become irrelevant as we move closer to a society run by our courts, not our elected government.

We will watch this bill closely over the next few days and update you as significant events develop.

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