ASA advocacy was instrumental in influencing the outcome of two California bills that would have had a major negative effect on the staffing industry.

On Sept. 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 973 into law; it requires businesses with 100 or more employees to annually report employee salary and wage information to the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, along with data on workers’ race, ethnicity, and sex. ASA and California Staffing Professionals, an ASA-affiliated chapter, urged lawmakers to exempt temporary workers because such workers are excluded for federal EEO-1 reporting purposes and thus should be exempted from state requirements. In a major win for the industry, the legislature agreed and excluded temporary workers.

ASA advocacy also helped derail a bill that would have required hotels, event spaces, airport businesses, janitorial service companies, and certain other employers to offer newly open jobs to employees who had been laid off for pandemic-related reasons. ASA and CSP argued that the bill would harm the state’s temporary workers and would unduly hamper employers’ ability to augment their workforces at their discretion. Despite strong union support for the bill, Gov. Newsom vetoed it, saying that it was confusing and would “place a heavy burden on hotels that have suffered financially during the Covid-19 pandemic.” It is unclear whether the legislature will attempt to override the governor’s veto.