---
type: "Bill"
title: "Occupational safety and health: hazards."
description: "Existing law prohibits an employee from being laid off or discharged for refusing to perform work in violation of prescribed safety standards, where the violation would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or fellow employees. Existing law creates a cause of action for wages for the time an employee laid off or discharged for such a refusal is without work as a result. Existing law defines the term \"employment\" for these and other purposes to exclude household domestic service."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 2658"
citation: "California AB 2658 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Occupational safety and health: hazards."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Burke"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 27
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2020-02-20"
last_action: "2020-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/13162868-c7c2-466d-8d43-d2d47e9a0da4"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658"
source_hash: "be5369681874b9973725b8529c384dc15913384cbcec6ddd3cb6267522931854"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2658 (20192020) — Occupational safety and health: hazards.

Existing law prohibits an employee from being laid off or discharged for refusing to perform work in violation of prescribed safety standards, where the violation would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or fellow employees. Existing law creates a cause of action for wages for the time an employee laid off or discharged for such a refusal is without work as a result. Existing law defines the term "employment" for these and other purposes to exclude household domestic service.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/20/20 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265899INT)
2. **05/11/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265898AMD)
3. **07/16/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265897AMD)
4. **08/20/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265896AMD)
5. **08/25/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265895AMD)
6. **09/29/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265893CHP)
7. **AB2658** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658)
8. **09/04/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2658&version=20190AB265894ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2658 Burke Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **67–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **4–1** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB2658 Burke By Mitchell — **31–8** (pass) · upper
- AB 2658 Burke Assembly Third Reading — **72–2** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Burke — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-02-20** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2020-02-21** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2020-03-12** Referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-11** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on L. & E. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-05-12** Re-referred to Com. on L. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2020-05-21** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (May 20). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-02** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-03** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (June 3). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-06-04** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-06-10** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 72. Noes 2. Page 4770.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-06-11** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2020-07-01** Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2020-07-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-08-05** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2020-08-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (August 11). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-08-17** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 20). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2020-08-20** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-24** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-25** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 8.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-30** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2020-08-31** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 67. Noes 0. Page 5428.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-09-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2020-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 288, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/13162868-c7c2-466d-8d43-d2d47e9a0da4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).