Archive for May, 2018
MAN’S BEST FRIEND
How to Handle Customers’ Service Animals On Tuesday afternoon a customer walks in your restaurant with his giant Deerhound and starts ordering lunch for both of them. The waitress, surprised and unsure about this arrangement, asks her supervisor if the customer needs to leave because of the “no pets allowed” policy. May the supervisor promptly […]
PLANES, TRAINS, CARS & CAMELS
Calculating Travel Pay in California Hourly employees must be paid for all “hours worked.” Where an employee is required to travel for work, near or far, the employer must compensate the worker for that time. Exceptions are normal commute time or road trip downtime. Thus, an hourly worker who watches a movie through a flight for business is […]
CAN I BRING MY MONKEY TO WORK?
How to Handle Assistive Animals in the Workplace Upon arriving to work on Monday morning your customer service manager asks if she can bring her monkey to the office. Must management grant her request? It depends. If she needs the monkey to reasonably accommodate her disability, then the employer will most likely have to grant […]
PREPARE FOR SUMMER
Effectively Manage Paid Vacations No California employer is obligated to provide paid vacation time to its workers. However, such benefit is a common practice, promoting morale and productivity. Once a company grants paid vacation (for example, one week annually), it is considered an accruing benefit, i.e., an employee earns it gradually throughout the working year. […]
DON’T FLUNK THE REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION TEST
Compton School District Failed to Accommodate Disabled Teacher The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers with five or more on payroll to engage in an “interactive process” with a worker requesting accommodation of a disability. The employer must have timely, good faith and ongoing discussions to explore if and how to reasonably […]
CORRECT PAY STUBS SAVE BUCKS
Learn California’s Specific Pay Stub Requirements to Avoid Penalties Attorneys for employees alleging underpayment or other wage irregularities will regularly add a pay stub violation claim to the mix. By definition, if an employer has erred in wage calculations, it has messed up the earnings statements. California law on the specific information that must be […]
FOR WHOM THE PHONE RINGS
Anti-Harassment Agency Randomly Surveys California Employers On April 10, 2018, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (The Task Force) announced that it will telephonically interview randomly-selected California employers on their anti-harassment policies including employer-sponsored training and other anti-harassment complaint procedures. Formed in […]
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
When It’s Time to Call Your Lawyer No-one likes lawyers … until you need one. Experienced and knowledgeable business managers are usually capable of handling basic employment issues. Yet, laws governing the workplace tend to change frequently and companies can face formal complaints, liabilities and large attorney bills if significant employee disputes or decisions are […]
THE BASICS OF OVERTIME
Five Rules for California California law requires most non-exempt employees to receive overtime pay for time worked beyond forty hours in any one workweek or after eight hours in one workday. A workweek is any seven consecutive days, starting with the same calendar day each week beginning at any hour, so long as the cycle […]