Author Archive
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 66
BATHROOM DISCRIMINATION
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), charged with enforcing federal protections against workplace disability discrimination, has sued WalMart in North Carolina for allegedly declining to provide reasonable accommodation and improperly terminating a Crohn’s disease-afflicted employee.
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 65
WHO’S NEXT?
The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the federal Department of Labor has published a 2022 Southern California Garment Worker Survey after random investigations of 50 area contractors. The results were abysmal:
THE WRONG THING TO DO: NOTHING
It’s the pro bono work that brings the greatest compensation: The light in the eyes, hope rekindled, the dream of creating a future worth living. From last week’s Letter from Liberia, the journey leads to Saturday, March 25, 2023.
What’s New In 2023
REPORTING PAYROLL PROFILES
As previously reported, effective January 1, 2023, Senate Bill (SB) 1162 requires California employers of 100 or more employees and/or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors (i.e., staffing or temp agencies) to report annual pay and hours-worked data by job category, sex, race, and ethnicity to the Civil Rights Department (CRD) by the second Wednesday of every May (moved from the prior annual reporting date of March).
WHAT’S NEW IN 2023
PANDEMIC LEGACY
California Governor Gavin Newsom will end the COVID-19 State of Emergency February 28, 2023.
Effective February 3, 2023, Cal/OSHA “non-emergency”/prevention regulations replaced the prior emergency temporary standards. They apply to most California workers not covered by the Aerosol Transmissible Diseases rules, to remain in effect for the next two years, the recordkeeping subsections for three years.
HANDBOOK HELPER EPISODE 14
WATCH AND LEARN
Many businesses install on-premises closed-circuit camera systems to monitor shared or common areas.
Video surveillance can deter, prevent, or help resolve theft, physically threatening incidents, or other dangerous conditions or situations.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Particularly in a hotly contested election cycle, California employers should take care not to discriminate against workers for political activities, affiliations or speech. Management should be familiar with and apply these laws:
SMALL PLANET BIG DREAMS
Now in our 17th year of collaboration and despite all barriers – a global pandemic being only the latest – I am soon returning to Liberia and Ghana to further our Applied Scholastics International (APS) African Literacy Campaign.
HANDBOOK HELPER EPISODE 13
COMPANY DEVICES: HANDS ON, HANDS OFF
Most businesses rely extensively on workplace emails, texts, and other electronic systems.
Without written guidelines, employees might not understand their privacy rights can fail to extend to personal communications over company equipment.
COVID BENEFITS RESURGENCE
On September 29, 2022, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 152 (AB 152) approving two significant COVID-19 workplace provisions, effective October 9 and retroactive to January 1, 2022.