California Assemblymember Lorena Gonzales (D-San Diego), author of the labor law that has essentially declared war on the state’s gig worker economy, may have a new magnum opus.
Earlier this week, Gonzales and Assemblymember Christina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) proposed a bill that would require adult entertainers, performers, and web-cam models to undergo state-mandated training and obtain a “certificate of training completion” before entertainers are permitted to film on camera.
According to the text of the bill, the training course would provide information on the rights of adult entertainers, including information about how to report workplace abuse or injuries. Entertainers would also receive information about how to identify victims of human trafficking, and undergo fingerprinting.
Garcia told Reason Magazine that the final training course will resemble the certification process used in other industries, including the food service industries.
If the proposal becomes law and the certification process does, in fact, come to resemble that of the food service industry, prospective adult entertainers may come to anticipate practice drills, flash cards, and a fair bit of cramming.
According to the proposal, the training curriculum would be developed by an adult entertainment advisory committee, which would consist of ten people, including two adult entertainers, three dancers, two doctors, a therapist and a money manager, who would each receive $200 each day the committee meets.
While the proposal doesn’t state how long the training will take, prospective certified adult entertainers can expect to spend a minimum of 2 hours and 45 minutes, and the online version will include “an interactive feature.” However, anyone who wants to take the exam will have to pay for it themselves.
According to Reason Magazine, Alana Evans, the president of an adult entertainer guild, has come out against the proposal, and lambasted Gonzales for not mentioning the proposal when they recently met to discuss the gig worker law.
“We are shocked, disgusted and angry that our parent union did this without discussing it with APAG, without discussing it with the industry and without discussing it with stakeholders,” said Evans. “Nobody contacted us about this. Not the [International Adult Entertainment Union], not Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who I met Thursday to discuss A.B. 5.”
The guild is also concerned that the proposal prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from taking the training course, and thus prevent people under 21 from entering the adult entertainment industry, reports the news agency.
Gonzales has since distanced herself from the proposal, claiming that it contains mistakes, and that she wouldn’t vote for it herself. The assembly member also claims the “bill idea” was proposed by the International Entertainment Adult Union, the parent union of the adult performers guild, but it isn’t clear who actually wrote it.
This wouldn’t be the first time Gonzales proposed a disaster of a law. As The Daily Wire reported in September, former California Senator Barbara Boxer published an op-ed correctly noting that it would create “anxiety and loss of income for thousands of workers” who rely on the flexibility of gig jobs to earn a living.
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