As we blogged about previously, a new law came into effect January 1, 2019 requiring California employers with five or more employees to provide sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training for all employees by January 1, 2020. Prior to this new law, only employers with 50 or more employees were required to provide at… Read More
Posts Categorized In: Employment Law Advice & Counsel
SCOTUS Rules Employees Cannot Band Together in Class Arbitrations
In yet another split 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lamps Plus v. Varela that employees at a California business could not band together in a class-wide arbitration. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled, each employee was required to proceed independently in an individual arbitration. The Supreme Court acknowledged that the arbitration agreement that… Read More
One Day, Two Opposite Results in Arbitration Cases
On the same day, two different California appellate courts reached opposite conclusions as to whether an employer’s arbitration agreement was enforceable or not. Subcontracting Concepts v. DeMelo — Arbitration Agreement Void and Unenforceable In one case, Subcontracting Concepts, LLC v. DeMelo, the Court found that the arbitration agreement was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable and, therefore, unenforceable…. Read More
Employee’s “Imprecise” Memory is Sufficient if Employer Fails to Keep Records
In Furry v. East Bay Publishing, the California Court of Appeal held that an employee’s “imprecise” memory is sufficient evidence to support his claim for wages and overtime owed when the employer fails to keep accurate records of the employee’s work hours. The employer in Furry did not keep track of the hours its employees worked…. Read More
Employers Beware: Call-In Scheduling Policies Trigger Reporting Time Pay
The California Court of Appeal recently ruled in Ward v. Tilly’s Inc. that employers who utilize “on call” scheduling have to pay reporting time pay to their employees. This decision is sending shockwaves through California’s restaurant and retail industries because it will significantly increase payroll costs for those employers — and all others who require… Read More
2019 Brings New Laws and Obligations for California Employers
Last year was a busy legislative year in California. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in particular spawned a host of new employment laws that took effect on January 1st. If you haven’t done so already, you should review your employee handbook and personnel policies to make sure that you are in compliance with these new laws. SB… Read More
Dynamex “ABC Test” Limited to Wage and Hour Claims Only
It was only 8 months ago that the California Supreme Court announced its bombshell ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court and announced the new test for determining when a worker was an employee or independent contractor. This new test was dubbed the “ABC Test” because, for a worker to properly considered an independent contractor,… Read More
Corporate Owners and Officers are Individually Liable for PAGA Penalties
Readers of this blog know the potent plaintiff’s weapon that is California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). PAGA allows an individual employee to “stand in the shoes of the State” and sue his employer for civil penalties flowing from the employer’s wage-and-hour violations. What makes PAGA so devastating for employers is that the employee is… Read More
Governor Brown Signs SB 1343 Expanding Sexual Harassment Training Obligations
On September 30, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 1343 which will lower the number of employees required to trigger mandatory sexual harassment training. Currently, any California employer with 50 or more employees is required to provide at least 2 hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees within 6 months of assuming… Read More
Transparent Separation: A More Humane Way to Terminate?
I came across an interesting article today in the Harvard Business Review about employee terminations. The author, who is a digital media executive and Adjunct Professor of Management at Columbia University, argues that “transparent separation” is a more humane approach to employee termination that is “highly underused given [its] low risk and great benefits.” So… Read More
