A janitorial corporation that has faced numerous PAGA lawsuits is supporting a bill, SB 646, that was gutted in the final weeks of the legislative session to exempt certain unionized janitorial workers from the controversial statute.
The gut-and-amend process is depriving the public of transparency, Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, told the Northern California Record.
“The assumption is that the bill is being proposed to protect this company from all of the litigation that’s taking place,” Grove said. “I would hope that the governor would veto this bill and then look at serious things that need to be done to protect employers from frivolous litigation.”
Grove on Sept. 8 spoke on the Senate Floor in opposition to the measure, which now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto or signature.
ABM Industries is one of the largest janitorial companies in the country and in the state of California.
SB 646 began as an electricity management bill but by the end of the Legislative session had changed to a PAGA exemption measure.
“If you allow things to go through the process normally and with transparency, so that the public has opportunity to comment, then these things would be in the public eye,” Grove said. “And people would question why the Democrat Legislature is passing a bill to stop janitorial workers – who they profess to want to protect – but with this gut and amend, it was evident that they have no intentions of protecting these janitorial workers.”
The gut and amend process typically takes place at the end of session.
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, an author of SB 646, did not reply to a request for comment from the Record.
Grove has long supported PAGA reform, which has enriched trial attorneys over the employees they represent. Many claims are filed for minor paycheck stub errors like the address of an employee’s bank branch.
“So PAGA is a problem,” Grove said. “But when the Democrats acted on this piece of legislation, they were specifically exempting a company.”
ABM Industries in July agreed to settle an ongoing wage claims case for $140 million. In an earlier PAGA case, the company settled for $5.4 million.
“The bill is currently on the governor’s desk and so it is his decision to veto it and protect these employees,” Grove said. “There's clearly a workplace issue there that needs to be addressed, and they don't need to be exempted from PAGA.”
Grove noted that all laws should apply equally.
“If you're going to have a PAGA exemption, then it should be for all employers, not just unionized,” Grove said. “You need to apply the law equally across all industries.”