Revamped Business-To-Business Exceptions Effective September 4, 2020, Assembly Bill (AB) 2257– through Labor Code section 2776 – modifies and expands exemptions for bona fide business-to-business contracting relationships from the severe ABC independent contractor test. The more-forgiving Borello multi-factor balancing test will continue determine contractor vs. employee status for such associations. A business entity providing services […]
California Wants Uber and Lyft Drivers as Employees It seemed like a good idea at the time: the rapid growth of Uber-style “gig economy” business models ostensibly offering a win-win of worker freedom and consumer convenience. Yet, California government came to another conception of such arrangements: presumed exploitation. Hence enter AB 5 and its hardball […]
“Safer at Home” Updated, Statewide Coronavirus Response We are in our fifth week following Governor Newson’s March 18 order requiring all California residents until further notice to stay at home or place of residence except for those in businesses and functions deemed essential to 16 federally-designated “critical infrastructure” sectors. The state last updated yesterday its […]
Essential Workers Must Cover Up and Stay Six Feet Apart Facing COVID-19’s unfolding (sur)realities, LA City, LA County, Pasadena and Riverside County, among other local California public health authorities, have ordered that wear-a-mask and six-foot distance “recommendations” are now mandatory whenever possible for workers at essential businesses. Effective April 10, a City of Los Angeles […]
COVID-19 Paid Leave and Tax Credits As reported in Federal Coronavirus Workplace Relief (March 23) and COVID-19 Gets Noticed (April 2) the March 18 Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires most employers with fewer than 500 on payroll to provide paid sick and family leave wages for certain COVID 19-related absences. The FFCRA includes […]
California’s Coronavirus Response Statewide and Local April 3, 2020 Current Status Welcome to our new pandemic-driven world, evolving daily. On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newson issued Executive Order N-33-20 requiring all California residents until further notice to stay at home or place of residence except for those in businesses and functions deemed essential to […]
As reported in “Federal Coronavirus Workplace Relief,” the March 18 Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) contains two nationwide employee leave laws, the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (PSL Act) and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLA). In essence and applicable to businesses with fewer than 500 employees: The PSL Act requires […]
Effective January 1, 2020 California law requires employers with 15 or more on payroll to provide paid organ donor leave to any employee undergoing such procedures. Beginning January 1, 2020, employers must also provide additional unpaid time off up to a total of 30 business days for organ donor leave. Thus, any employee undergoing an […]
Federal Court Denies Uber Request to Stop AB5 In a blow to the gig economy, a Los Angeles federal court has ruled that Uber, Postmates and two individual plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on their constitutional challenges to AB5. Olson v. State of California (Olson). While noting the potential harm Uber and the other plaintiffs […]
Lony Chaney, 1920 Employed or Independent? California Offers AB5 Answers The hottest California employment question of late: do independent contractors still exist? The California Supreme Court’s 2018 Dynamex decision turned independent classification on its head, imposing a strict “ABC” contrary to decades of law and custom. The legislature followed suit with Assembly Bill (AB) 5, […]