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Between them, the two measures affect millions of Californians and involve billions of dollars.

Both proposals have been kicking around the Capitol for years, but earlier attempts were thwarted by the certain knowledge that they would be vetoed by Republican Govs. Pete Wilson or George Deukmejian.

But with Davis, the first Democratic governor in 16 years, that dynamic has changed: Labor and lawyers are flexing their political muscles and Davis is helping them do it.

The overtime bill would affect some eight million California workers. It overturns the decision made two years ago by the Industrial Welfare Commission that ruled, in accordance with the wishes of Wilson, that overtime pay was required only after 40 hours a week in five major job classifications. The decision did not affect workers who are compensated as part of collective bargaining contracts.

Employers have long opposed the eight-hour rule, arguing that it is costly and reduces flexibility, not only for employers but for workers seeking flex-time schedules. It is particularly painful, they said, for smaller employers. But labor groups, and the liberal Los Angeles Democratic Assemblyman who authored the measure, Wally Knox, said workers are unfairly crippled financially by the commission's decision.

The Knox bill, labor's single biggest political priority this year, restores overtime pay to the procedure that existed before the 1997 decision, which means that overtime, which is 50 percent more per hour than standard pay, is due for a daily work load above eight hours. After 12 hours, the Knox bill requires overtime pay to be double, or 100 percent more, than standard pay.

The Knox bill also allow workers to decide by a two-third vote to work up to 10 daily hours in a 40-hour week without overtime -- a provision that Knox said would enable workers to retain the ability to establish flex-time schedules.

The bad-faith lawsuit bill is more complex and has received less attention than Knox's overtime legislation but it, too, is one of the major bills of the year.

That bill would restore a legal doctrine known as "Royal Globe" that the state Supreme Court under Chief Justice Rose Bird established in 1979 and later, in 1988 under Chief Justice Malocolm Lucas, rescinded. In effect, the bill by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, would re-establish the "Royal Globe" doctrine to its 1979 role.

Named after the insurance company that figured in the original case, "Royal Globe" allows accident victims and others to sue the insurance companies representing defendants for bad faith for delaying or not settling legitimate claims. Current law allows policyholders to sue only their own insurance companies for alleged bad faith, but not the insurers of the opposing parties.

Expanding the right to sue, insurers say, means that bad-faith lawsuits can be filed routinely. And since such suits carry the potential for higher damages and settlements than the existing procedure, the cost of litigation goes up dramatically. That cost increase, insurers argue, can only be covered by increased premiums.

Lawyers and their political allies, however, argue that existing law unfairly favors insurers and does little more than limit policyholders' legitimate access to the courts.

The Escutia bill was approved by the Senate, then by the Assembly, and now goes back to the Senate for what is likely to be routine action on Assembly amendments. Once that happens, the bill goes to the governor's desk. Although Davis has not taken a specific public position on the Escutia plan, he said during his gubernatorial campaign that he would sign legislation reinstating "Royal Globe." He is expected to make good on that promise if and when the "Royal Globe" bill gets to his office.

The Knox and Escutia bills are the most visible, but by no means the only, bills to demonstrate the new clout of labor and lawyers in the Capitol. Just how long that political influence will last is uncertain.

But for now, by anybody's yardstick, those two groups are enjoying a level of influence in Sacramento they have not wielded for years.

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