Posts Tagged ‘laws for employees’
WHAT’S NEW FOR 2019 DON’T BE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG
Employers May be Liable For Unpaid Wages to Subcontractor’s Workers Section 218.7 of the Labor Code, effective January 1, 2018, made contractors responsible for wage and benefit payments to employees of subcontractors who fail to make those payments. It permitted a contractor to require proof of wage and benefit payments from subcontractors and to withhold […]
PREGNANCY ACCOMMODATION IN CALIFORNIA
New, Simpler Certification Form for Disability Leave, Transfer and Other Reasonable Accommodation The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers with five or more on payroll to provide pregnancy disability leave, transfer and/or other reasonable accommodation due to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. A woman is “disabled by pregnancy” if her […]
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR STATUS? IT DEPENDS
Radically New Dynamex Test Only Applies to Certain Employee Classification Cases This past spring, the California Supreme Court inexplicably tossed out its decades-old “multi-factor” independent contractor test in favor of a far more stringent three-part “ABC” test. (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court). See, Independent Contractor Status in California Now Falls Under Radically Different […]
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 […]
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 CALIFORNIA ALTERS THE MEANING OF WRITTEN SALARY AGREEMENTS FOR HOURLY EMPLOYEES
The California Legislature has made an important change, effective January 1, 2013, eliminating some of the ability of businesses to negotiate wage arrangements with hourly workers. In February, 2011, we summarized the Court of Appeal decision in Arechiga v. Dolores 192 California Appellate Reports, 4th Series (Cal.App.4th) 567 (2011). See, “Written Salary Agreements and Overtime.” […]
BRINKER DECISION AND REST PERIODS
California Employers Get a Break The California Supreme Court has recently clarified this state’s workplace rest period laws. Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (Hohnbaum) (April 12, 2012). California law requires employers to provide their hourly employees with one paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours worked or “major fraction thereof.” The Court confirmed […]
BRINKER CALIFORNIA’S MEAL BREAK BREAKTHROUGH
Employers are No Longer the Lunch Police In 2000, California enacted Labor Code 226.7, requiring employers to pay an employee an extra hour of compensation for “each work day that the [required] meal or rest period is not provided.” Fueled by that financial incentive, nearly overnight, and for the past 11 years, the vast majority […]