In addition to implementing written confidentiality/nondisclosure agreements, a confidentiality policy can remind employees of their ongoing responsibility to protect the company’s trade secrets, customer data and other confidential information.
Earlier we detailed the latest changes in the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS). See What’s New In 2022: Kickin’ Corona: Cal/OSHA Further Revises Testing and Prevention Standards (May 6, 2022).
Every two years, California employers with five or more on payroll must provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive sexual harassment training and education to all California supervisory employees and at least one hour of such training to all nonsupervisory employees.
Although seemingly straightforward, progressive discipline policies can lead to trouble if not properly written or implemented.
Progressive discipline imposes increasingly harsher consequences upon an employee’s repeated misconduct, such as:
An employer may or may not have to compensate a worker for on-call time depending on the restrictions on that person’s actions and movements. The dividing line – not necessarily definite in every case – is whether the employee is “subject to the control of the employer” (controlled standby) or merely available if he/she chooses to respond (uncontrolled standby).
Clear, written employee policies assist both employers and employees to navigate the oft-times murky field of California employment law. They are the foundation for workplace legal compliance and productivity.
Employers can and should provide employees with properly-written rules and standards of conduct. These include prohibited conduct, such as:
Departing from the usual annual adjustment, the IRS has announced a mid-year increase — effective July 1, 2022 – on its employee vehicle reimbursement rate from 58.5 cents/mile to 62.5.
Contrary to perhaps common perception, California’s private employers have no legal obligation to grant employee time off for holidays or to pay for that time. Whether to provide workers that time away – paid or unpaid – to promote workforce goodwill and morale is a different question.
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, controversial politics is again taking national center stage, potentially in the workplace.