2693.1. (a) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Department of Industrial Relations shall establish and maintain a Garment Worker Wage Claim Pilot Program. The Department shall contract to provide resources to qualified organizations. The funds shall be used to increase the capacity and expertise of qualified organizations to improve the education of wage violations to garment workers and the securing of wage claims for garment workers who bring forward a wage claim pursuant to Section 2673.1. The program shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Education for garment workers including, but not limited to, minimum wage, overtime, sick leave, recordkeeping, wage adjudication, and retaliation.
(2) Direct assistance by a worker advocate to assist workers who seek to file a wage claim.
(3) Legal assistance to garment workers who seek to file a wage claim.
(b) All education and services provided in this section shall be at free and accessible to any garment worker in the State of California.
(c) For the purposes of this chapter, “qualified organization” means a legal aid or community-based nonprofit organization that has a minimum of five years experience working with garment workers, advocating on behalf of garment workers, and a successful record of winning wage claims on behalf of garment workers that have been filed with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
(Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 78, Sec. 5. (AB 138) Effective July 16, 2021.)