Blog
EMBARRASSING, DISRUPTIVE AND EXPENSIVE TO RESOLVE
Harassment in the Workplace is Illegal Prevention is The Only Viable Solution Current regulations tighten trainer qualifications and impose heightened interactivity requirements, including questions that assess learning, skill-building activities and numerous hypothetical scenarios about harassment with follow-up discussion questions. We are offering an updated in-house, two-plus hour seminar, at your location, that will fulfill these […]
FINAL PAYCHECK
What California Employers Must Pay Upon Termination A worker recently asked whether his now-former employer should have included sick time and vacation time in his final paycheck. He wrote: “I’m no longer working for [the employer] and I thought I was going to get my paid time off with my last check such as … […]
WHO IS AN “EMPLOYEE” UNDER CALIFORNIA’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW?
Some Volunteers May be Covered The California Court of Appeal has decided that the state’s workplace anti-discrimination law did not protect a former Los Angeles Police Department volunteer police reserve officer. Estrada v. City of Los Angeles, published July 24, 2013. However, the result would likely be the opposite for a private business in similar […]
TRAVEL PAY REVISITED
Setting and Calculating Compensation for Job-Related Travel Time A California worker recently asked how his employer should pay him for job-related travel time expended before and then after a full eight hours of labor at a remote location. He wrote: “If I drove 5-1/2 hours, then worked 8, then drove 5 more hours, wouldn’t my […]
ON-CALL TIME
When California Employers Must Pay for Worker Time Waiting for the Call A California worker recently asked us through the blog site whether his employer should pay for his “stand-by” or “on-call” time. He wrote, in part: “On some days, we are expected to be on-call for certain shifts … The sign posted at the store informs […]
AVOIDING WORKPLACE HELL
For Heaven’s Sake: Document, Document, Document! Lawyers are in sales, they are not in management. They don’t sell widgets to consumers of course. Rather, competing attorneys each “sell” his/her client’s construction of events and actions to juries and judges, with the most plausible version of such occurrences the winner. This firm defends employers daily on […]
PROVING WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION IS NOW MORE DIFFICULT IN CALIFORNIA
State Supreme Court Issues an Employer-Favorable Decision in a “Mixed Motive” Case In February, 2013, the California Supreme Court decided that even where illegal discrimination (e.g., racial, gender, age, religion) was one of a number of motivating factors in terminating a worker, the employer will not be liable for damages if it can show the […]
REQUIRED FMLA POSTER CHANGE
Employers with 50 or More Workers Beginning March 8, 2013, employers with 50 or more employees and subject to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) must display a new poster. The change is prompted by new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations. This new “Employee Rights and Responsibilities Under the Family and Medical […]
NEW CA LABOR LAWS 2013 RELIGIOUS DRESS AND GROOMING AND EMPLOYERS’ INCREASED DUTIES TO ACCOMODATE
Effective January 1, 2013, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) expands the definition of potentially protected religious beliefs and practices to include “religious dress and grooming practices.” Employers also must now meet a much more stringent standard to deny accommodation of religious practices as an undue hardship to the business. Religious Dress and Grooming: […]
MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENTS FOR 2013
IRS Increases Rate by One Cent to 56.5 The IRS updates annually the reimbursement mileage rate for an employee’s business use of his or her vehicle. The rate has increased from 55.5 cents in 2012 to 56.5 cents per mile in 2013. The government determines the mileage rate by a study of the fixed and […]