Posts Tagged ‘work rights’
NO BASE LIKE HOME
When Interstate Transport Workers are Entitled to California Paycheck Protections While each state has the power to set wage and other workplace standards for labor performed within its borders, that authority can blur when truckers and passenger carrier personnel divide their work time between the states. On several suits by pilots and flight attendants, the […]
NOW WHAT?
California Requirements to Avoid Employee Heat Illness in Time of Face Mask With temperatures rising to summer levels in parts of the state, employer obligations to protect outdoor workers from heat-related illnesses, beginning at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, come into force. Areas not yet reaching that threshold should prepare for the heat to come. Particularly with […]
WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION: OLD DEFINITION NEW MEANING
The Supreme Court’s “Unexpected” Expansion of Equal Rights for Gay and Transgender Employees The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is America’s foremost protection against employment discrimination (also known as “Title VII”). Yet, for more than five decades, courts have applied this law to preserve such “equal rights” only for some, and decidedly not for homosexual or transgender persons. No […]
WHAT’S NEW IN 2020 ORGAN DONOR LEAVE EXPANDED
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 […]
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: DREAM + COURAGE = REALITY
Asa Philip Randolph, 1963 March on Washington, August 28, 1963, Leads to the First National Anti-Discrimination Protection Over 200,000 demonstrators took part in the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event’s impact – famously known for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech – lead to the […]
WHAT’S NEW IN 2020 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Higher Workplace Standards to Assist Lactating Moms Since 2002, California has required employers to provide their lactating employees with reasonable time and adequate space to express breast milk. Effective January 1, 2020, Senate Bill (SB) 142 requires a clean, private and safe workplace location for the activity and a written lactation accommodation policy. Significant penalties […]
WHAT’S NEW IN 2020 TIME’S UP, EXTENDED
Longer Three-Year Deadline For Initiating Discrimination Claims Targets of workplace discrimination, harassment and retaliation prohibited by California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) now have three years (up from the previous one year) to file a claim with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against the subject employer. A person claiming such wrongful […]
ACCOMMODATION NATION
LISTEN Don’t Turn a Deaf Ear to Employee Disabilities The goal of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) “is to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.” Sometimes, however, companies need a not-so-friendly reminder from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of their reasonable accommodation obligations for ADA-protected […]
CAUTIONARY TALES EPISODE 31
RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITY NOT FEELING THE LOVE 708,521 Reasons to Pay Workers Legally Not having worker’s compensation insurance for five years was bad enough, but when the Labor Commissioner’s Office started investigating a workers’ compensation complaint against 53-bed Amore Retirement Living, it also discovered failure to pay minimum wage, overtime, and other wage and hour […]
HAIRSTYLE DISCRIMINATION BANNED
New California Law Takes Effect January 1, 2020 California law has long-prohibited workplace racial discrimination against employees and applicants. The state is now the first to link natural hairstyles to race, thus protecting their wearers from disparate treatment. The Legislature based passage of revised Government Code 12926 on a finding that workplace dress and grooming […]