PAGA + COVID = More Business Closures and Bankruptcies As readers of this blog know, California’s unique and complex employment laws can, if violated, trigger an avalanche of back-due wages, penalties, liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees, and interest. As a result, well-counseled California employers – and particularly California small business employers – who get hit with… Read More
Posts Categorized In: General Business
COVID-19 Provides A Chance to Hit the Reset Button on Everything, Including HR
The ongoing global pandemic has invaded nearly every aspect of our lives. Perhaps most notable is the way in which COVID-19 has reshaped the working world. No matter what your industry, chances are it looks starkly different now as compared to the pre-COVID era. Forbes contributor Susan Galer of SAP frames the transformation of the… Read More
Under AB 685, Employers Have New COVID-19 Reporting Requirements
We recently blogged about SB 1159 here, which expanded protections for employees potentially exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace. On September 17, 2020, Governor Newsom also signed into law AB 685, which provides additional requirements for employers to report cases of COVID-19. AB 685 will not take effect until January 1, 2021; therefore, employers have… Read More
Court of Appeals Confirms That Arbitration Agreements Won’t Protect Employers from PAGA Litigation
California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) authorizes aggrieved employees to file lawsuits to recover civil penalties on behalf of themselves, other employees, and the State of California for violations of the California Labor Code. Lawsuits brought under PAGA have resulted in employers paying millions of dollars in penalties that the state almost certainly would not have… 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
Note to Employers: Craft Your Arbitration Agreements Carefully
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”), as well as three individual employees at… Read More
The Skies Just Got Friendlier for Employers
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 Labor Code. Each of the cases was… Read More
Schoolyard Bullying Minus the Schoolyard: How to Mitigate Toxicity in the Virtual Workplace
As an employer, you may think that, during this time of indefinite virtual work, the lack of a shared workspace would mean less bullying amongst your employees. With no common space to congregate, and with less colleague-to-colleague face-to-face time, the sample size for toxic workplace culture would have to decrease, right? Au contraire. In an… Read More
