Pot, fast food, money, and outer space

New laws have recently been passed and signed on a variety of employment related topics. As Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature moved to distinguish Sacramento from the nation’s other state capitals, some of these laws are pretty strange.

S-P-A-C-E F-O-R-C-E

Employers currently have a wide variety of duties when dealing with benefits provided to or the return of active or reservist members of the U.S. armed forces from leave. In one of the simpler and more understandable new statutory provisions, a new law introduced by assembly member Al Muratsucci and recently signed by Governor Newsome expands the definition of “armed forces” beyond the current law (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marines) to now include the newest branch, the U.S. Space Force. So please make sure that you don’t discriminate on that basis.

Not so fast, food regulators!

Speaking of legislation affecting a particular class of employees, this month Governor Newsome also signed the FASTrecovery Act, establishing a fast-food council within the Department of Industrial Relations, which would establish minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions for fast-food restaurant workers.