The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of everyone’s lives. Many of the major changes have taken place at the workplace. Employers were forced to scramble to create systems to allow employees to work remotely. Initially, this was a huge challenge for many employers, particularly those that had never allowed employees to work remotely prior… Read More
HR & Employment Law Blog
Governor Signs SB 1383 and Extends CFRA Leave to Employees at Small Businesses
On September 17, 2020, Governor Newsom signed into law SB 1383, radically altering the business and employment law landscape for small California employers. SB 1383 – which goes into effect on January 1, 2021 – significantly expands the reach of California’s Family Rights Act (CFRA), now mandating that employers with 5 or more employees must… Read More
How to Prevent WFH (Work from Home) from Becoming BFH (Burnout from Home)
When you’re working from the comfort of your own home (and perhaps – no judgment here! – your pajamas), and sparing yourself the hectic mornings of the past (think alarm snoozes and jam-packed highways), one would assume that you’re doing your mental health a favor, right? Wrong. A Huffington Post article published in July explains… Read More
Governor Newsom Expands COVID-19 Leave Entitlements for Many California Workers
On September 9, 2020, Governor Newsom signed AB 1867 into law, which, in part, supplements the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) enacted earlier this year. (For background on the FFCRA, see our previous blog posts here, here, and here). Specifically, AB 1867 creates Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (“SPSL”) rights for millions of California… Read More
Governor Newsom Signs AB 2257 Granting New and Expanded Exemptions to California’s Independent Contractor Law (AB 5)
As readers of this blog know, one year ago California’s Governor signed AB 5 into law, which mandated the “ABC Test” for determining whether a worker was an employee or an independent contractor. The signing of AB 5 into law was a watershed moment for California businesses and workers because the new “ABC Test” was… Read More
U.S. Supreme Court: No Separation of Church and Employer
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on two important cases relating to religion and employment. In both decisions, the Court came down squarely on the side of religious freedom, ruling in favor of employers. In Our Lady of Guadalupe School, two teachers brought employment discrimination claims against their former employers, both of which were Catholic… Read More
Quit When You’re Ahead – An Expensive Lesson for One California Employer
In case there was any doubt, the California Court of Appeal recently delivered an expensive reminder of its pro-employee stance. Timothy King, a former Regional President for U.S. Bank, was recently awarded $15.6 million in damages based on a jury’s finding that U.S. Bank defamed and wrongfully terminated him in order to avoid paying him… Read More
Reopening Safely: The California “COVID-19 Playbook” for Employers
On July 28, the State of California published a helpful resource for employers – the “COVID-19 Employer Playbook: Supporting a Safer Environment for Workers and Customers.” Many of our clients have confessed to feeling some measure of “COVID Weariness” – the feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted by the nonstop onslaught of information that is… Read More
The “How” and the “What” of Crisis Communication
Let’s face it: the global health crisis brought about by COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon. Here in California, we are almost 6 months into “shelter-in-place,” with no signs of any major changes coming. For most companies, the earlier steps taken in response to the crisis were, understandably, tied mainly to operations and logistics (e.g.,… Read More
Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training Materials Now Online
On May 10, 2019, we blogged about the updated requirements for California employers providing sexual harassment training to their employees, as defined in SB 1343. You can read that blog post here. SB 1343 requires that all employers who have 5 or more employees provide a minimum of 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training… Read More
