With many of California’s workplaces facing significant changes fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, state lawmakers are considering whether labor laws also need to evolve.

Legislators have proposed expanding workers’ compensation eligibility so that more employees will be covered if they are diagnosed with COVID-19, increasing the number of sick days for food service workers and requiring employers to pay a portion of utility and internet bills for teleworkers.

MSN reports that Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he plans to work “hand in glove” with the Legislature to expand workplace protections, including guaranteeing COVID-19-related sick leave, easing workers’ compensation claim requirements, enforcing labor laws and ensuring employers are reporting outbreaks.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) and state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) both have bills to ease restrictions on workers’ compensation so more employees have access to the benefit. Talks are underway to combine Gonzalez’s bill with Hill’s legislation, Senate Bill 1159, the lawmakers said.

SB 1159 would add coronavirus-related illness or death to the list of on-the-job injuries covered under the state’s workers’ compensation program while removing a requirement that workers prove they contracted the virus on the job. Instead, employers would have to prove that COVID-19 wasn’t contracted in the workplace.

Newsom included a similar measure for essential workers in a May 6 executive order – a big win for labor unions. However, that executive order only eased the burden of proof for workers with COVID-19 before July 5.

As currently written, Gonzalez’s bill, AB 196, would go a step further than Hill’s legislation by creating a presumption that essential workers who contract COVID-19 were infected while on the job, with no ability for the employer to contest that finding.

Among the other workplace bills the Legislature will consider in the coming weeks is AB 3216 by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), which would make it an unlawful employment practice to refuse a request for up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave from a worker who needs to care for a child whose school or daycare has closed due to a state, local or federal public health emergency.

Assembly Bill 1492 by Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas) would ease workplace restrictions dictating when employees must take meal and rest breaks during the day – a proposal intended to provide more flexibility in working from home – while requiring employers to pay for an additional hour of work if the employer requires workers to skip those breaks. The bill also would require an employer to pay for equipment needed to work from home and a portion of the worker’s home internet and utility bills.

Senate Bill 729 by state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) would require employers to provide an additional 80 hours of paid COVID-19 sick leave to full-time food sector workers during a declared local or state emergency.

Lawmakers have until Aug. 31 to send bills to Gov. Newsom before adjourning for the year.