If you’re an employer or employee in Berkeley, California today is a big day! Berkeley’s new “Paid Sick Leave Ordinance” takes effect today and offers covered employees extraordinarily generous paid sick leave rights. Interplay with California’s State Paid Sick Leave Law Like the other 7 municipalities that have local sick leave laws, Berkeley’s new paid… Read More
Posts Categorized In: Employment Law Advice & Counsel
California Employer Notice Obligations — 2017 Update
Last month, I blogged about AB 2337 which requires all California employers to give yet another notice to all new employees — this time about the employee’s right to take leave related to domestic violence or stalking. You can find my blog post about AB 2337 here. This got me thinking about all the various… Read More
Harvard Business Review: Employer Vacation Policies Are “Broken”
According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, employer vacation policies are “broken” and “don’t work.” Analysis of Typical Employer Vacation Policies The typical employer policy allows an employee who has accrued paid time off to submit a request for vacation. That employee then has to “cram extra work into the week(s) before… Read More
California Employers Must Now Give Notice to All New Hires of Their Domestic Violence Rights
On July 1, 2017 a new California law went into effect that adds yet another notice that California employers must give to new employees at the time of hire. Existing California Law For several years now, California Labor Code § 230 has prohibited California employers from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, an employee… Read More
San Francisco Employers May No Longer Ask About or Consider Salary History
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today approved a new ordinance that prohibits employers from asking candidates about their salary history. The new ordinance, if signed by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee as expected, will go into effect on July 1, 2018. Referred to as the “Parity in Pay Ordinance,” the new San Francisco law… Read More
CA Supreme Court Clarifies Employers’ “Day of Rest” Obligations
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court answered some admittedly “unsettled questions” under California law regarding an employer’s obligation to provide a day of rest to employees under California’s day of rest statutes (codified at Labor Code §550-558.1. These statutes prohibit an employer from “caus[ing] his employees to work more than six days in seven” (§552), but do not… Read More
Federal Court Rules that Title VII Protects Gays and Lesbians from Workplace Discrimination
For the first time ever, a federal appellate court has ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination that is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College came from the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 8-3 vote. In… Read More
California Issues New Regulations Limiting Employers’ Use of Criminal History in Hiring Decisions
Back in 2012, I blogged about the federal EEOC adopting strict guidelines that limited an employer’s ability to make hiring decisions based on an applicant’s criminal history. You can find my 2012 blog post here. In the aftermath of the EEOC issuing its new guidelines, many local jurisdictions began debating whether to adopt “ban the… Read More
Governor Brown Signs SB 1063, Broadening the Fair Pay Act to Include Race
California already has the nation’s most progressive fair pay law, known as the “Fair Pay Act.” I blogged about that new law, which was passed in October 2015, here. But now, with Governor Brown recently signing SB 1063, California’s Fair Pay Act is even more expansive. Whereas the original Fair Pay Act was aimed at… Read More
Federal Judge Blocks New Department of Labor Overtime Rules, Including Minimum Salary Required for Exemptions
Last week, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing its new overtime rules that were scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2016. Among other things, these new overtime rules would have required employers to pay “exempt” employees at least $47,476/year beginning on December… Read More