The 2020-2021 CA legislative session did not produce many new workers' compensation laws, possibly due to wanting to avoid making too many waves during a recall election year. The highlights of the enacted bills include:

a) Borello Test: In regards to the test to determine independent contractor status, AB 1506 extends the Borello Test (excludes ABC Test) for newspaper carriers through 12/31/2024; while AB 1561 extends Borello Test to 12/31/2024 for manicurists and the construction trucking industry as well as applying that test to insurance and TPA claims adjusters. [Rather than admitting the ABC Test was a bad idea, the CA legislature tip-toes around the issue by continuing to add jobs excluded from the overburdensome ABC Test.]

b) Joint Wage Liability: SB 62 provides that garment manufacturing vendors and their "brand guarantors" (buyers) will be jointly liable for wage and hour violations. [Could joint liability on wages eventually be interpreted to apply to work comp liability as well under I.C. 11663?]

c) Advisory Committee: SB 321 creates an advisory committee to make recommendations for potential regulations to protect privately paid household domestic service workers (housekeeper, nanny, care giver, etc.) employed at least five years at the home. [Consistent with recent on-going attempts to undermine homeowner protections by regulating private homes as businesses.]

d) Workplace Safety: SB 606 states that if Cal/OSHA determines a violation is "enterprise-wide" (i.e. faulty policies/procedures), then all the workplace locations can potentially be cited; and if the violation is deemed "egregious" due to owner conduct or high injury rates then a penalty may be assessed per employee as oppose to per incident.

e) Policy Cancellation: AB 1511 amends I.C. 676.8 to extend deadlines by 5 days for in-state and 10 days for out-of state work comp policy cancellations sent by U.S. mail. [20 days if mailed from outside the U.S.]

The work comp related bills of note that did not become law include a) Coverage: SB 216 requires all licensed contractors to carry work comp coverage even with zero employees, bill was unopposed yet suddenly went inactive, possibly revived next year; b) L.C. 4850 Time: Gov. Newsom vetoed extending 4850 time to firefighters from the Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (collective bargaining issue?); and c) Apportionment: Gov. Newsom became the 3rd consecutive governor to veto some version of SB 788 which attempted to eliminate apportionment based upon various characteristics of an individual, with Newsom stating the bill was confusing and duplicative of existing law.