Posts Tagged ‘workplace policies’
WHAT’S NEW IN 2021 CALIFORNIA’S NEWEST INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR LAW PART I
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 […]
PANDEMIC POLICE ON PATROL
Cal/OSHA Hitting Employers Statewide for COVID-19 Non-Compliance California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal/OSHA has gone from bark – its July 16 notice calling on all employers to carefully review and follow the state’s COVID-19 workplace safety and health guidance– to bite. In two press releases, September 4 and September 9, the […]
CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 37
Dalit girl, Andhra Pradesh, India, May 12, 2005 Photo from Wikimedia Commons Published without changes under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. WORKPLACE CULTURE CLASH CALIFORNIA CHALLENGES CISCO SYSTEMS FOR COLOR (“CASTE-BASED”) DISCRIMINATION On June 30, 2020, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed suit against Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco) […]
FOR THE RECORD
Sound Management Practices For Personnel Documentation As California supplies no specific definition for required personnel records, it falls to company management to judge what constitutes adequate documentation that reliably reflects each employee’s work history with the company. Labor Code section 1198.5 addresses employees’ rights to access their “personnel records” without defining the term. The Labor […]
MINISTERS AND MESSENGERS
Supreme Court Removes Discrimination Protections for a Wide Range of Church-Affiliated Employees To a degree, the First Amendment shields religious institutions from government involvement in employment disputes. The U.S. Supreme has recently broadened that protection to potentially place hundreds of thousands of parochial school teachers and other church-affiliated workers outside the reach of workplace discrimination laws. Our […]
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 […]
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 […]
KNOW YOUR BOUNDARIES
New Employer Restrictions on Hiring Notices and Interviews Starting July 1, 2020 California law prohibits discrimination against applicants and employees for their membership in any protected class, including religious creed, disability and age (40+). The California Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) has issued new regulations effective July 1, 2020, to better protect such individuals. Advertisements. The […]
CALLING OUT BIG GIG
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 […]
IN THE KNOW
New Post-Pandemic Workplace Policies If California has been able to flatten the COVID-19 curve over the past two months, it has been by a sustained flood (pandemic?) of government directives and orders. Over the past week alone, the State of California has issued no less than 26 road maps, guidance memos, and checklists relating to […]