California lawmakers finished the legislative session by enacting several employment-related bills signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Below are some of the new laws that employers need to be aware of.

• Intersectionality recognized. Legislators passed Senate Bill 1137, making California the first state to explicitly recognize the term “intersectionality.” The term is defined in the bill as “captur[ing] the unique, interlocking forms of discrimination and harassment experienced by individuals in the workplace and throughout society, particularly Black women, as compared to Black men and White women.” The new law expressly protects the combination of any two or more characteristics protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), including race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, age, sexual orientation, reproductive health decision making or veteran or military status, from discrimination.
• Hairstyle protections. Assembly Bill 1815 amended FEHA to remove the term “historically” from the definitions of race, broadening the term to include traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. These protections include (but are not limited to) braids, locs and twists.
• Jury, court and victim time off changes. Jury, court and victim time off provisions were revised and recast by Assembly Bill 2499, moving enforcement authority to the Civil...

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