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FREEDOM BETWEEN THE LINES
Workplace Policy Handbook & Forms for 2024
We have seen it way too many times. Personnel management without Labor Code-compliant policy poses a special kind of chaos, setting up the business for expensive and potentially back-breaking litigation.
There is freedom in simplicity: the clear written workplace guidelines presented in our newly updated model employee handbook and forms.
PAYROLL DATA REPORTING
May 8, 2024 Deadline For Companies with 100+ on Payroll
Last year we wrote about new California Civil Rights Department (CRD) annual reporting requirements for larger employers, breaking down annual pay and hours-worked data by job category, sex, race, and ethnicity. See What’s New In 2023:Reporting Payroll Profiles: Deadline is May 10, 2023 (April 6, 2023). The next required report is due on May 8, 2024.
Businesses with 100 or more employees (defined to include labor contractors), with at least one in California, must file annually with the CRD in addition to any required “EEO-1” report with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. For each employee, the state’s report must include 2023 work location (including remote), job category, sex, race/ethnicity, pay and hours worked.
STAKE YOUR MARK
Trademark Assistance to Protect Your Brand
Businesses must protect their service and product brands from those who may seek, intentionally or unknowingly, to trade on the goodwill of those brands.
Choosing and registering a strong trademark is a powerful protective action. As a shield against unauthorized use, a registered mark is among the most valuable assets of an enterprise.
Not all chosen trademarks can be registered. Some marks are too generic or descriptive of products or services, diminishing the owner’s ability to prevent others from using them. A trademark attorney can help choose a mark the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is likely to accept for registration.
CALIFORNIA INVESTS $18 MILLION TO PROSECUTE WAGE THEFT
California Penal Code section 487m criminalizes intentional Labor Code violations – such as failing to timely pay all required wages (e.g., minimum wage, overtime, premium pay for missed breaks), requiring off-the-clock work, or taking workers’ tips — as felony grand theft if the underpaid wages exceed $950. For this section, “employee” includes an independent contractor and “employer” includes the hiring entity of an independent contractor. Conviction can result in a jail sentence of up to three years.
TIME WELL SPENT
Employment Law Seminar Testimonials
We have completed this year’s “what’s new” employment law seminars, receiving the best possible reward: participating managers’ confirmed greater command of this mine-laden, but critical, field.
WHAT’S NEW IN 2024
HEALTH CARE
FACILITY PAY HIKES
Minimum Wage Increases Start June 1, 2024
To address the shortage of health care workers, Senate Bill 525 (SB 525) created Labor Code sections 1182.14 and 1182.15.
GET SCHOOLIN’: NO FOOLIN’
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 77
72 MILLION REASONS NOT TO MESS WITH WOMEN
Employer Agrees to End Widespread Sex Discrimination
Activision Blizzard, Inc. and related companies were targeted in 2018 with joint investigations by the California Civil Rights Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
WE OFFER AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
Make a Wage Audit a Priority
California employers can be in for a rude awakening on discovery they are not fully compliant with the Labor Code. Devastating results can occur when not-so-friendly state or federal investigators come knocking.
WHAT’S NEW IN 2024
SACRAMENTO LOVE LETTER
Mandatory Non-Compete Notices Due February 14, 2024
As previously covered, California has tightened the noose on noncompete clauses that could restrain employees from engaging in lawful professions, trades, or businesses.