SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislature approved bills Thursday that would amend a 20-year-old law allowing workers to sue their bosses over labor violations and require employers found liable to pay a fine to the state.
Under the 2004 law, employers who have violated California's labor code must pay a fine. A quarter of that money goes to workers and the rest to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency for worker safety law enforcement and education. Ashley Hoffman, a policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce, said at a hearing this week on one of the bills that the original law was “well-intentioned” but has become “manipulated at the expense of workers, businesses and nonprofits that serve vulnerable Californians.”
Sara Flocks, a campaign director at the California Labor Federation, said at a hearing this week that the original law, which is often called PAGA, came in “response to a crisis in labor law enforcement." The law was created to bolster rights for immigrant workers, low-wage workers, farmworkers and other vulnerable employees, she said.
CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire man charged with threatening the lives of presidential candidates last year has been found dead while a jury was deciding his verdict, according to court filings Thursday.Police identify family of four found dead in rural community near Windsor