Vaccines, Uber Drivers Subject of Big Decisions as the Legislature Sprints to the Finish Line

The California Legislature begins its final month of session today. With just a few weeks until their Sept. 12 deadline, lawmakers are rushing to consider bills before time runs out. Among them, big pieces of legislation dealing with workers and vaccines.

Vaccines

Vaccine legislation is well known for generating passionate testimony at the state Capitol. This month the Assembly will continue debating Senate Bill 276. It would limit when parents could obtain medical exemptions for vaccinations for their school children, requiring the state to review some exemptions, including those from schools with immunization rates less than 95% and from doctors who have submitted five or more exemptions in a year.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is the principal co-author of the bill. She’s been bombarded on social media by people opposed to the measure and has even received death threats. But she said making sure vaccination rates remain high is important, especially for lower-income districts like hers.

“People can’t take a week off work if their children get measles," she said. "People don’t have the ability to pay a hospital bill if their children end up in the hospital with whooping cough.”

The bill has already passed out of the Senate and is currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which Gonzalez chairs.

Workers

The Senate will take on two bills that could drastically change how some workers in California are viewed. Assembly Bill 5 seeks to codify a recent state Supreme Court ruling that found employers must classify workers as employees, rather than contractors, if those workers are performing a service essential to the business. So, for instance, Uber would have to classify its drivers as employees of the company.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, said California has an opportunity.

"The opportunity that we have is to continue to make sure that this state stands up for workers," he said. "This Supreme Court decision allowed us to do that. And this piece of legislation allows us to make sure we solidify that, that we put that into law."

Critics of the bill include tech companies like Uber, Lyft and Instacart, whose businesses rely heavily on contractors. They're among a group of tech firms partnering with the California Chamber of Commerce to lobby for loosening restrictions on who could be included as a contractor.

The bill is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Another bill under consideration, Assembly Bill 378, would allow in-home child care providers to unionize. They provide the majority of California's child care, and supporters say the bill would allow them to bargain more effectively with the state over reimbursement rates for children receiving state-subsidized care.

Previous efforts to unionize in-home providers have failed. But supporters are more optimistic this year, given the support Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration has for early childhood care and education.

The bill is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Of course these aren't the only big issues the Legislature will consider in its final weeks.

Lawmakers will also weigh in on Assembly Bill 1505, which would give school districts more control over charter schools. Assembly Bill 61 would expand who is able to request a gun violence restraining order. And lawmakers may also consider a bill that would allow utility companies like PG&E to issue tax-exempt bonds to pay for wildfire damages.