Inland Empire Manufacturers’ Council Meeting on New Law That Requires California Employers to Provide Sick Pay

Fontana, CA. September 10, 2014 – Details of the newly passed A.B. 1522 bill (Gonzalez) mandating paid sick leave for millions of California employees was the topic of discussion at the September10th general meeting of the Manufacturers’ Council of the Inland Empire (MCIE), hosted by California Steel Industries, Inc. in Fontana. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill into law just hours prior to the meeting.

1522 creates the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act of 2014. Effective July 1, 2015, California employers will be required to provide one hour of accrued sick pay to employees for every 30 hours worked, for a minimum of three days per year. California is the second state in the nation to mandate employers to provide paid sick leave.

Guest speaker Joe Ortiz, a partner at Best Best & Krieger LLP, a Labor and Employment practice in Riverside, led the discussion which included about 40 local manufacturers and educators. Ortiz recently taught employment law as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Riverside extension program and consults with employers for a variety of legal services and issues.

The general meetings of the MCIE are held bi-monthly at manufacturing facilities around the Inland Empire. Manufacturers, educators, government agencies, industry employees and other supporters of local manufacturing meet to discuss important and relevant topics and to share resources. The MCIE creates a unified voice for manufacturers in the Inland Empire with the goal of supporting the growth of the manufacturing industry.