Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills that could impact agricultural employers and employees.

• AB 2240 (Arambula, D-Fresno) will require state-operated and -supported migrant farmworker housing centers to remain open year-round. Previously, qualified migrant farmworkers could occupy slots in migrant farmworker housing centers for up to six months, extendable to up to nine months. Arambula and the bill’s proponents contended the time limitation disrupted the education of migrant farmworker’s children when they were required to move in the middle of the academic year; existing policy required migrant farmworkers to move at least 50 miles away to be eligible for housing the following year. Some farmworker advocates expressed concern that AB 2240 would shift financial resources away from migrant farmworker housing programs, that year-round occupants would preclude housing workers needed for limited seasons, and that some centers lack heat for occupancy during winter months.
• SB 1105 (Padilla, D-El Centro) specifies that agricultural employees can use state-mandated Paid Sick Leave to avoid excessive smoke, heat or flooding. Employees, including agricultural employees, can already use state-mandated PSL virtually without restriction and without any obligation to prove actual illness of themselves or others they provide care for, meaning SB 1105 makes virtually no change to existing law.