Members of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Council recently voted to oppose SB 310 (Wiener, D–San Francisco), joining a broader coalition of employer organizations and local chambers across California.

Expectation is that the bill, which failed to pass the Senate last year, could return for consideration by the end of January 2026.

In a letter to constituents published last April, CalChamber Vice President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Advocacy Ashley Hoffman wrote that “the bill gifts trial attorneys a new means of leveraging wage and hour cases against employers of every size for high settlements.”

Current law allows alleged violations of Labor Code section 210 to be pursued either through the Labor Commissioner’s Office or through representative lawsuits under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).

California enacted PAGA reforms in 2024 that expanded employers’ ability to correct certain labor code violations within a specified period to reduce or avoid penalties. Specifically, reforms significantly expanded the “right to cure” for employers, allowing them to fix violations like wage theft, unpaid overtime, and break issues within 33 days of notice, a major change from the old law that only allowed curing some wage statement errors.

California’s employers celebrated the reforms, hailing the new process as a common-sense and robust way to fix labor violations and reduce litigation costs.

SB 310, however, removes those “guardrails from Labor Code 210,” Hoffman wrote, reversing progress and providing a new, separate private right of action that attorneys will attach to “every boilerplate claim they file to inflate settlement costs.”

“If passed, SB 310 hands such firms a new procedural tool for extracting higher penalties from employers,” Hoffman wrote.

The coalition opposing SB 310 includes the California Food Producers, Central Valley Business Federation, California Farm Bureau, and the Western Growers Association, plus numerous other employer groups and local chambers of commerce.

For more updates on Fresno County development and business initiatives, stay connected with the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.