(June 16, 2008) Three California Chamber of Commerce-supported bills that will promote job creation are still moving through the Legislature.

Two of the bills have been scheduled for policy committee hearings in the next two weeks.

• AB 1394 (Krekorian; D-Burbank) improves protections of trademark owner rights and consumer health and safety by strengthening California laws against trafficking of fake products such as auto parts, prescription drugs and children’s toys.
• AB 2987 (Benoit; R-Bermuda Dunes) harmonizes provisions in current law to ease administration of return-to-work provisions in workers’ compensation law.
• SB 1608 (Corbett; D-San Leandro) is comprehensive reform that increases public access for individuals with disabilities while reducing unwarranted litigation, including by encouraging use of state-certified disability access specialists and establishing court procedure for early judicial review of lawsuit claims.

Trademark Protection

CalChamber-sponsored AB 1394 closes loopholes that undermine enforcement efforts and brings California law into greater conformity with federal law.

Counterfeiting and piracy drains the California economy of $34 billion per year in revenues. In Los Angeles County alone in 2005, counterfeiting and piracy resulted in losses of 106,000 jobs, $5.2 billion in business revenue and $483 million in state and local government tax revenue.

AB 1394 will give courts greater flexibility to impose stiffer monetary penalties when counterfeiting operations are especially large and profitable.

Doing so will bring California law more in line with federal penalties, which are more than double the maximum penalties currently allowed under state law. In addition, tougher monetary penalties can help deter counterfeiting crimes.

Workers’ Comp Job Vouchers

CalChamber-supported AB 2987 seeks to change one aspect of current law as it relates to an injured worker’s eligibility for a supplemental job displacement voucher (SJDV) benefit.

Current law contains two requirements for an injured worker to be eligible for this benefit:

• First, the workplace injury causes permanent partial disability.
• Second, the employee does not return to work within 60 days of the termination of temporary disability benefits.
  The second requirement that an employee does not return to work within 60 days of the termination of temporary disability can be improved for the purposes of streamlining the eligibility process.

AB 2987 changes the requirements for eligibility in a way that does not reduce the number of employees who are entitled to the benefit. AB 2987 still would contain two requirements for eligibility:

First, the workplace injury causes permanent partial disability.
Second, the injured worker does not return to work within 60 days of the date of the permanent and stationary report.
This change to triggering eligibility based on the permanent and stationary report makes more sense because an employee’s permanent restrictions are not known until a permanent and stationary report is received. In addition, the level of permanent partial disability is not known until the permanent and stationary report is received.

The changes in AB 2987 harmonize the two requirements for eligibility and remove some of the confusion over eligibility for this employee retraining benefit.

Advancing Disability Access

CalChamber-supported SB 1608 responds to a significant ongoing state problem — the small, but widely destructive, atypical group of plaintiffs and lawyers using the disability laws and court system to systematically extract monetary settlements from businesses rather than to improve disability access. Too often these lawsuits result in businesses closing their doors.

SB 1608 sets up a process to encourage business owners to be proactive in complying and to obtain the assistance of state-certified access specialists to determine whether buildings comply.

This bipartisan comprehensive reform measure is designed to address two important goals:

• Promoting and increasing compliance with state and federal civil rights laws providing for equal access for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations; and
• Reducing unwarranted, unnecessary litigation that does not advance the goals of disability access.

Action Needed

In Senate

• AB 1394 will be considered by the Senate Public Safety Committee on June 17.
• AB 2987 will be heard by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on June 26.

Contact committee members and your senator to voice support for AB 1394 and AB 2987.

In Assembly

SB 1608 passed the Senate with unanimous support on May 29. It is expected to be considered by the Assembly Business and Professions Committee and the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Contact your Assembly representative and encourage support for SB 1608.

For more information on the job creation bills or sample letters of support, visit www.calchambervotes.com.

Staff Contact: Marc Burgat