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SOLID FOUNDATIONS
Workplace Policy Handbook & Forms for 2025
Basic written office policy and procedures geared toward production create an easily navigable workplace. Our “hire-to-fire” forms and template policy manual, all updated for 2025, can help reduce the inter-staff confusions that plague production.
CALIFORNIA NEW MINIMUM WAGE RATES TAKE EFFECT IN JULY
Effective July 1, 2025, several California cities and counties will implement increases to their local minimum wage rates.
MAJORITY DISCRIMINATION
US Supreme Court Levels the Playing Field
In Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services (Ames), the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned a higher standard that some federal appeals courts were imposing on majority group members claiming workplace discrimination.
AT-WILL POWER
The Scope of an At-Will Employment Relationship
“[M]en must be left without interference … to discharge or retain employees at will for good cause or for no cause, or even for bad cause without thereby being guilty of an unlawful act per se. It is a right which an employee may exercise in the same way, to the same extent, for the same cause or want of cause as the employer. Payne v. Western & Atlantic Railroad, 81 Tenn. 507 (1884).
The kernel thus planted in Tennessee some 140 years back, “at will” employment has evolved in every American state except Montana as the right of either employer or employee to terminate their relationship for any or no reason at any time, with or without advance notice.
RETIREMENT COMPLIANT
CalSavers’ Deadline Is 12/31/2025 For Smallest Employers
CalSavers’ mandatory state-run Roth IRA program enables employee retirement savings through automatic payroll deductions. Employers face no fees or contribution requirements, while eligible employees can opt out or change their contributions at any time.
LABRADOR RECEIVER
Bringing Assistive Animals to Work; Please Do Not Call Them Pets
While airlines are relatively cool on qualified emotional support animals, employers need only bend to the trend if federal or state disability discrimination laws are in play.
TERMINATING EMPLOYEES
The Devil Dwells in Details
Company A has a low-performing employee, Worker 1, who is also rude and threatening and resists correction. Should Company A: (1) allow Worker 1 to continue to cause chaos to avoid a lawsuit if it terminates Worker 1; (2) try to get Worker 1 under control; or (3) terminate Worker 1 with an offer of severance in exchange for a release?
THE ABCs of “NO MEANS NO”
Mandatory Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
Every two years, employers with five or more on payroll must provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive sexual harassment prevention training and education to all California supervisory employees and at least one hour of such training to all nonsupervisory employees working on-site or remotely within California. New employees must complete this training within six months of hire.
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 99
LISTEN TO THE BLIND
Using Screen Reader Technology to Accommodate Sightless Employees
Settling a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), The Results Companies, LLC in Fort Lauderdale, has agreed to pay $250,000 for refusing to accommodate a blind new hire who asked for a screen reader to enable her work as a telephone customer service agent. She had requested the company consult with her screen reader software publisher and her vocational counselor. The company fired her instead.
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 98
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IS NO VACATION
EEOC is Suing Marriott for Failure to Accommodate Saturday Sabbath
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued two Marriott entities in Orlando, alleging discrimination for requiring a Seventh-Day Adventist sales executive to work Saturdays…