In the most significant meal periods decision in almost ten years, the California Supreme Court on February 25, 2021 decided Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC. While the Court in Donohue made clear that as long as meal periods are provided, employers do not have to “police” employees and force them to take meal periods, the… Read More
Posts Tagged With: wage and hour
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
Employers, Beware: Right to Arbitrate can be Waived
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) 2020 WL 2511680 – is a cautionary… Read More
uWait, uWork, iPay
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. in federal court asserting that they had… Read More
McDonald’s Settles Class Action Wage/Hour Case for $26 Million
McDonald’s recently agreed to pay $26 million to settle allegations that it had violated California’s wage and hour laws. The case was pending for 7 years and involved a class of 38,000 cooks and cashiers working at corporate-owned locations throughout California. McDonald’s always denied any violations of the California Labor Code, but McDonald’s nonetheless finally… Read More
EPLI Insurance May Cover Some Wage-and-Hour Claims
Employment practices liability insurance (“EPLI”) policies often contain explicit language that excludes from coverage or defense claims that are based on any federal or state wage-and-hour laws. Recently, the California Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal gave employers a glimmer of hope – and an incentive to push back if a carrier initially rejects either coverage… Read More
Heads Up — July 1 Minimum Wage Increases
If you do business in any of the cities below, be sure that as of July 1, 2019, you began paying any minimum wage employees at the current increased rates. If you use a payroll service, they likely notified you and took care of it. But if you handle your own payroll in-house, make sure… 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
CA Supreme Court Rejects the “De Minimis” Doctrine — Employers Must Now Pay for Every Minute Worked by an Employee
California has some of the strictest and most complicated wage and hour laws in the nation. And guess what? They’re even stricter and more complicated now after the California Supreme Court rejected the “de minimis” defense for employers in wage and hour disputes in California. What’s the “de minimis” defense anyway? Beginning in 1961, federal… Read More
U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Guidance on Joint Employment
Yesterday, the United States Department of Labor (DoL) issued new guidance on joint employment — that is, when more than one business is involved in the work being performed by a particular employee. This is an increasingly common phenomenon in today’s economy, especially in the construction, agricultural, janitorial, logistics, staffing, and hospitality industries. Employers in… Read More
