Business

Labor and business reach deal on law that addresses workplace abuses

Published

2 years ago

June 19, 2024

Labor and business reach deal on law that addresses workplace abuses

A deal has been struck between business and labor groups that puts an end to a long battle over a unique California law that allows workers who believe they have been victims of wage theft or other workplace abuses to sue employers not only for themselves but also for other workers.

Some of the largest companies in the state had banded together to place a measure on the November ballot that sought to effectively repeal the law, known as the Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA. But backroom negotiations this month with unions and Democrats who opposed the initiative have resulted in a compromise that takes the initiative off the November ballot.

Instead, the deal reforms PAGA in a way that both businesses and workers say resolves problems with the law.

Concessions to business groups in the deal mainly involve changes to the penalty structure, making it more difficult for lawyers to simply demand a payout from a company. If companies can show they are trying to correct a violation, by giving back pay to workers and agreeing to change the offending practices, their penalties will be low.

“This package provides meaningful reforms that ensure workers continue to have a strong vehicle to get labor claims resolved, while also limiting the frivolous litigation that has cost employers billions,” said Jennifer Barrera, president and chief executive of the California Chamber of Commerce, according to a Tuesday news release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announcing the deal.

Labor groups say the changes will help ensure that bad behavior by employers is halted, rather than simply awarding them a settlement and allowing a company to go back to problematic practices. The deal also allows workers to more quickly be paid back for wage theft and other violations.

“We want things fixed, changes that actually do help workers,” said Lorena Gonzalez, head of the California Labor Federation. “We are happy with the deal.”

The legislative deal would impose a time limit on lawsuits brought: Alleged violations must have occurred within the last year, and the workers bringing the claims must have personally experienced the alleged violations.

The deal also folds in labor-backed Assembly Bill 2288, introduced by Ash Kalra (D-San José), which aims to give PAGA more teeth by giving courts the power to order employers to correct violations.

Various labor organizations praised the deal in a news release, saying that it upholds core tenets of PAGA that aim to let workers hold abusive employers accountable for widespread wage theft, safety violations and misclassification of workers as independent contractors.

“PAGA is one of workers’ strongest protections against wage theft that drains at least $2 billion from workers’ pocketbooks each year. Today’s agreement protects this landmark law’s fundamental strength: workers’ right to access justice through our courts,” Alexandra Suh, co-president of the California Coalition for Worker Power and executive director of Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, said in a statement.

The measure, initially set to appear on the California ballot in November, had been the culmination of long-standing efforts by corporate and industry groups to undo the law.

Business groups had criticized PAGA for causing what they described as a proliferation of frivolous and costly lawsuits that hurt small businesses and nonprofits. According to one study, the mounting lawsuits have cost businesses $10 billion during the last decade.

Under the PAGA law, workers would end up getting less money after a long legal process than if they had filed complaints through state agencies, groups backing the measure had said.

The law has helped workers sue companies such as Walmart, Uber Technologies and Google for workplace violations.

“There is near universal consensus that PAGA is broken and not working for workers or employers,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Assn., according to a news release from businesses that sought to repeal PAGA. “We need sensible reforms to fix the broken system. We support this legislative reform and encourage lawmakers to swiftly pass the measure.”

Negotiations over PAGA came amid broader discussions around the 2024 ballot as well as budget conversations in Sacramento underway this month. The governor must sign a balanced state budget by June 30, and the deadline to put measures on the November ballot is June 27. Talks are ongoing over another business-backed ballot measure that would make it harder for the state to increase taxes.

Proposed changes to PAGA aim to encourage compliance with labor laws by capping penalties on employers that quickly take steps to fix bad practices. For employers that take steps to comply with the labor code before even receiving notice that they will be sued under PAGA, penalties are capped at 15% of the amount that would have otherwise been awarded. For employers that work to correct violations after receiving a PAGA notice, penalties are capped at 30%.

More of the penalty money would go to workers, with their allocated share increasing from 25% to 35%.

The reform would levy a new, higher penalty of $200 per pay period on employers that act “maliciously, fraudulently or oppressively” in violating labor laws.

Changes also aim to protect smaller companies by creating a process through which they can correct violations through the state labor department, to reduce their litigation costs.

“Small businesses throughout the state have been targeted by frivolous PAGA lawsuits for decades, even forcing some restaurants to shut down,” Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Assn., said in a statement. The reform package will “reduce shakedown lawsuits against small businesses.”

The Legislature will consider the reform legislation agreed to under the deal as early as this week. If the compromise is approved and signed by the governor, the coalition of businesses backing the initiative, called the Fix PAGA coalition, will remove its measure from the ballot.

Labor groups had raised an alarm about the ballot initiative in recent months, arguing that PAGA is a crucial tool for workers, since California struggles to enforce basic labor laws.

Although California has some of the toughest labor laws in the country, a study released last month by a team of researchers from UC San Francisco and Harvard University found that workers routinely experience abuses over pay, work schedules and other issues.

A recent audit of the California labor commissioner’s office found that claims of wage theft filed by California workers are routinely left in limbo for years by state investigators. The labor commissioner’s office would need to hire hundreds of additional staffers to effectively address a massive backlog.

Newsom’s office, as part of the deal, will pursue a budget-related bill to give the California Department of Industrial Relations the ability to expedite hiring in order to improve enforcement of wage theft claims.

Negotiations over the deal have lasted months and appeared to be going nowhere, but Newsom’s office, which was mediating the discussions, stepped in with a firmer hand this month. The deal came together over the last few weeks and was finalized on Monday, said a source familiar with the negotiations.

“Though we’ve successfully negotiated a dangerous measure off the November ballot — we can only hope that this deal encourages more employers to follow the law and pay their workers what they are owed. California’s worker advocate attorneys will continue to work vigilantly to ensure that they do,” said Kathryn Stebner, president of Consumer Attorneys of California.

Business

Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum named parks chief

Published

2 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum named parks chief

Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum has been named chairman of Walt Disney Co.’s experiences division, the company said Tuesday.

Mazloum succeeds soon-to-be Disney Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro as the head of the Mouse House’s vital parks portfolio, which has become the economic engine for the Burbank media and entertainment giant. His purview includes Disney’s theme parks, famed Imagineering division, merchandise, cruise line, as well as the Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii.

Jill Estorino will become the head of Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. She previously served as president and managing director of Disney Parks International and oversaw the company’s theme parks and resorts in Europe and Asia.

Estorino and Mazloum will assume their new roles on March 18, the same day as D’Amaro and incoming Disney President and Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden.

“Thomas Mazloum is an exceptional leader with a genuine appreciation for our cast members and a proven track record of delivering growth,” D’Amaro said in a statement. “His focus on service excellence, broad international leadership and strong connection to the creativity that brings our stories to life make him the right leader to guide Disney Experiences into its next chapter.”

Mazloum had been about a year into his tenure at Disneyland. Before that, he was head of Disney Signature Experiences, which includes the cruise line. He was trained in hospitality in Europe.

In his time at Disneyland, Mazloum oversaw the park’s 70th anniversary celebration and recently pledged to eliminate time limitations for park-hopping, which are designed to manage foot traffic at Disneyland and California Adventure.

Mazloum will now oversee a 10-year, $60-billion investment plan for Disney’s overall experiences business, which includes new themed lands in Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. At Disneyland, that expansion could result in at least $1.9 billion of development.

The size of that investment indicates how important the parks are to Disney’s bottom line. Last year, the experiences business brought in nearly 57% of the company’s operating income. Maintaining that momentum, as well as fending off competitors such as Universal Studios, is key to Disney’s continued growth.

In his new role, Mazloum will have to keep an eye on “international visitation headwinds” at its U.S.-based parks, which the company has said probably will factor into its earnings for its fiscal second quarter. At Disneyland Resort, that dip was mitigated by the park’s high percentage of California-based visitors.

Times staff writer Todd Martens contributed to this report.

Business

What soaring gas prices mean for California’s EV market

Published

14 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

What soaring gas prices mean for California’s EV market

It has been a bumpy road for the electric vehicle market as declining federal support and plateauing public interest have eaten away at sales.

But EV sellers could soon receive a boost from an unexpected source: The war in Iran is pushing up gas prices.

As Americans look to save money at the pump, more will consider switching to an electric or hybrid vehicle. Average gas prices in the U.S. have risen nearly 17% since Feb. 28 to reach $3.48 per gallon. In California, the average is $5.20 per gallon.

Electric vehicles are pricier than gasoline-powered cars and charging them isn’t cheap with current electricity prices, but sky-high gas prices can tip the scales for consumers deciding which kind of vehicle to buy next.

“We probably will see an uptick in EV adoption and particularly hybrid adoption” if gas prices stay high, said Sam Abuelsamid, an auto analyst at Telemetry Agency. “The last time we had oil prices top $100 per barrel was early 2022 and that’s when we saw EV sales really start to pick up in the U.S.”

In a 2022 AAA survey, 77% of respondents said saving money on gas was their primary motivator for purchasing an electric vehicle. That year, 25% of survey respondents said they were likely or very likely to purchase an EV.

As oil prices cooled, the number fell to16% in 2025.

In California, annual sales of new light-duty zero-emission vehicles jumped 43% in 2022, according to the state’s Energy Commission. The market share of zero-emission vehicles among all light-duty vehicles sold rose from 12% in 2021 to 19% in 2022.

“Prior to 2022, we didn’t really have EVs available when we had oil price shocks,” Abuelsamid said. “But every time we did, it coincided with a move toward more fuel-efficient vehicles.”

Dealers are anticipating a windfall.

Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Assn., predicted enthusiasm for EVs will rebound across California if oil prices don’t come down.

“If prior gasoline price spikes are any indication, you tend to see interest in more fuel-efficient vehicles,” he said.

Rising gas prices could be a lifeline for EV makers at a time when federal support for green cars has been declining.

Under President Trump, a federal $7,500 tax incentive for new electric vehicles was eliminated in September, along with a $4,000 incentive for used electric vehicles.

In California, the zero-emission vehicle share of the total new-vehicle market was 22% through the first 10 months of 2025, then dropped sharply to 12% in the last two months of the year, according to the California Auto Outlook.

Meanwhile Tesla, the most popular EV brand in the country, has grappled with an implosion of its reputation with some consumers after its chief executive, Elon Musk, became one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and helped run the controversial Department of Government Efficiency.

Over the last several months, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have pared back EV ambitions.

Other automakers, including Nissan, announced plans to stop producing their more affordable electric models.

The Trump administration has moved to roll back federal fuel economy standards and revoked California’s permission to implement a ban on new gas-powered car sales by 2035.

David Reichmuth, a researcher with the Clean Transportation program in the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the shift in production plans will affect EV availability, even if demand surges.

That could keep people from switching to cleaner vehicles regardless of higher gas prices.

“This is a transition that we need to make for both public health and to try to slow the damage from global warming, whether or not the price of gasoline is $3 or $5 or $6 a gallon,” he said.

According to Cox Automotive, new EV sales nationally were down 41% in November from a year earlier. Used EV sales were down 14% year over year that month.

To be sure, oil prices can fluctuate wildly in times of uncertainty. It will take time for consumers to decide on new purchases.

Brian Kim, who manages used car sales at Ford of Downtown LA, said he has yet to see a jump in the number of people interested in EVs, hybrids or more fuel-efficient gas-powered engines.

Still, if the price at the pump stays stuck above its current level, it could happen soon.

“Once the gas prices hit six [dollars per gallon] or more and people feel it in their pocket, maybe things will start to change,” he said.

Business

Nearly 60 gigawatts of U.S. clean power stalled, trade group finds

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Nearly 60 gigawatts of U.S. clean power stalled, trade group finds

A total of 59 gigawatts of U.S. clean energy projects are facing delays at a time when demand for power from AI data centers is surging, according to a trade group study.

Developers are seeing an average delay of 19 months over issues such as long interconnection times, supply constraints and regulatory barriers, the American Clean Power Assn. said in a quarterly market report.

The backlog is happening despite the growing need for power on grids that are being taxed by energy-hungry data centers and increased manufacturing. The Trump administration has implemented a slew of policies to slow the build-out of solar and wind projects, including delaying approvals on federal lands.

The potential energy generation facing delays is the equivalent of 59 traditional nuclear reactors, enough to power more than 44 million homes simultaneously.

“Current policy instability is beginning to impact investor confidence and negatively impact project timelines at a time when demand is surging,” American Clean Power Chief Policy Officer JC Sandberg said in a statement.

Despite the hurdles, developers were able to bring more than 50 gigawatts of wind, solar and batteries online in 2025, accounting for more than 90% of all new power capacity in the U.S., the report found. Clean power purchase agreements declined 36% in 2025 compared with 2024, signaling that the build-out of clean power in the U.S. could be lower in the 2028 to 2030 time period, according to the report.

Chediak writes for Bloomberg.