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…
A recent Court of Appeal decision underscores the importance of reviewing severability provisions in arbitration agreements. In Kec V. Superior Court, Plaintiff Nichole Kec brought individual, class, and Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) claims against her former employer, defendants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Reynolds American, Inc. (“Reynolds”),…
On June 29, 2020, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of employers in a trio of cases involving flight attendants and pilots who brought various wage and hour claims (both individual and PAGA) against their respective airline employers for non-compliant wage statements and other violations of California’s…
The 2020 global pandemic has brought many rapid changes to the world – and that includes changes to courtrooms and trial across California. COVID-19 has wrought havoc on our court system here in California, forcing many cases (other than the most urgent and life-threatening) to grind to a…
Navigating the California Labor Code can leave California businesses feeling like they are walking through a field full of landmines, with stiff penalties and mandatory attorneys’ fees for violations often leading to devastating results. Recently, however, California employers caught a break. In Betancourt v. OS Restaurant Services, LLC,…
On June 15, 2020, in Bostock v. Clayton County, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination and assures LGBTQ employees of equal treatment in all “terms and conditions”…
Arbitration agreements that are well-drafted and “state-of-the-art” under current California law are key to ensuring that employment disputes will be resolved by final and binding arbitration. But a recent California Court of Appeal case – Fleming Distribution Co. v. Younan (Cal. Ct. App., May 15, 2020, No. A157038)…
In Caldera v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the California Court of Appeal was asked to determine the proper amount of attorneys’ fees that should be awarded to a disabled employee who won a $500,000 verdict at trial. The employee, Augustine Caldera, complained that his supervisors regularly harassed…
California employment law is notoriously volatile. The ever-changing landscape – especially as related to Labor Code violations and cases brought under California’s wide-ranging Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), which authorizes representative actions for Labor Code violations – can make it challenging for employers to find certainty in how…
The California Supreme Court recently clarified that California law requires that Apple Inc. pay its workers for all time they spend waiting to be searched before leaving Apple retail stores. In Frlekin v. Apple, Inc., workers at Apple’s retail stores filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc….