The 2023 legislative session touched on a wide array of business topics. The new laws do not affect all businesses, but are nonetheless worth every business owner’s attention, as they may shape you conduct business in California in the future. In particular, California continues to pass legislation aimed at minimizing the impact of climate change.

As with prior years, California enacted additional legislation with the goal of limiting catalytic converter theft. Dealerships will need to take the necessary action to comply with these new laws. AB 473 is a victory for dealerships in that, among other things, it closes a loophole used by manufacturers during the Protest process. And, as with new laws governing businesses, in general, California has passed additional legislation aimed at minimizing the impact of climate change that targets the vehicle and dealership process.

Both the Federal government and California enacted legislation raising the minimum wage for certain workers. California has also passed several bills that protect employees in variety of ways relating to cannabis use, non-compete agreements, workplace safety, right to organize, retaliation, and reproductive rights.

As with private employees, California has passed legislation that provides certain protections for employees of public entities.

The most important civil procedure-related bill passed by California relates to arbitration in employment actions. Previously, if a court denies an employer’s motion to compel arbitration and the employer files an appeal, the civil action was automatically stayed during the pendency of the appeal. In an effort to protect employee rights, California passed SB 365 which now gives the trial judge the discretion to stay the civil proceedings during the pendency of the appeal.

On October 31, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (“OSHA”) executed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) that aims to promote safe and healthy workplaces and protect workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions. As a result, employers must prepare for increased safety and health enforcement efforts by both NLRB and OSHA. The goal of this collaboration is to strengthen health and safety protections for workers. Among other matters, the MOU sets forth a process for information sharing, training, and outreach between the NLRB and OSHA.

California employers are going through the annual year-end scramble to update policies and practices to comply with the rash of new laws that are taking effect in the upcoming new year. Understandably, businesses in the state are frustrated with the potentially onerous obligations they must keep up with.

In recent years, Cal-OSHA has modified and refined heat illness prevention requirements for outdoor work areas. Now, employers will be facing new Cal-OSHA requirements for indoor work areas. In the past several months, the Cal-OSHA Board (“Board”) has issued multiple rounds of revised standards on Indoor Heat Illness Prevention, with public comment on the most recent revisions closing on November 28, 2023. The Board is scheduled to vote on the latest version in early 2024.

In Mattson Technology, Inc. v. Applied Materials, Inc., a California Court of Appeal ruled that the trial court erred by not staying Applied Materials’ (“Applied) trade secret misappropriation claims against rival Mattson Technology (“Mattson”) while Applied pursued arbitration against its ex-employee who allegedly absconded with confidential information and provided it to Mattson.

The Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) has just approved an amendment to the Safeguards Rule of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) pertaining to reporting obligations for motor vehicle dealers for certain data breaches and other security events to the FTC.