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One to Keep An Eye On: Voluntary Veterans' Preference Employment Policy Act (California)


As with many employment and labor law related cases (and bills) being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.

This is one to keep an eye on.


Two bills are working their way through the California Legislature, AB 353 and AB 1477, which would allow private employers to establish a veterans' preference policy and grant a hiring preference to veteran applicants, regardless of when the veteran applicant served.  Currently, Section 12940(a)(4) of the Government Code only allows a veterans' preference policy for Vietnam era veterans.  Needless to say, the proposed expansion of the statute would allow private employers to grant a hiring preference to a much broader scope of veterans without risk of violating local or state equal employment opportunity laws.  Bear in mind though, this proposed expansion of the veterans' preference policy could not be applied for the purpose of discriminating against another applicant on the basis of any protected classification (such as race, sex, etc.).

These bills still have a bit of a ways to go before becoming law, but I think it is certainly something that both sides of the aisle can get behind and support.


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