The Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”) has been increasingly criticized as harmful to employers and employees. Well-meaning organizations are forced to expend resources settling often frivolous actions rather than...more
Governor Newsome has signed S.B. 1162, which requires employers to make salary ranges for positions available to both applicants and employees and expands pay data reporting requirements to better identify gender and...more
9/29/2022
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Governor Newsom ,
Job Ads ,
New Legislation ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Transparency ,
Race Discrimination ,
Reporting Requirements ,
State Labor Laws
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked an ongoing upheaval in the California (and greater U.S.) labor market. Extensive job losses early in the pandemic have led to a tight labor market, which arose in part due to the...more
California employers have navigated the ever-changing privacy landscape when it comes to employee and personnel personal information (“human resources data”). For years, California employers’ obligations were narrow in scope...more
Many Montana employees can claim the protection of Montana’s unique Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act, which generally bars an employer for terminating an employee without “good cause” after the employee has completed a...more
Get ready, large employers. After years of amendments exempting the personal information of employees and other personnel from the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), covered employers now have a firm deadline by which...more
12/22/2021
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
Compliance Dates ,
Covered Employer ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
Exemptions ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Large Employer ,
Personal Data ,
Personal Information ,
Personnel Records ,
Privacy Policy ,
Risk Management
On September 9, 2021, the Biden Administration announced its new COVID-19 Action Plan (the “Action Plan”), which outlines a six-pronged approach to combat the pandemic. The wide-ranging Action Plan lays out plans to vaccinate...more
9/14/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Health and Safety ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitals ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
Private Sector ,
Subcontractors ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Tribal Governments ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Beginning September 1, 2021, claims for sexual harassment can be made against a broader group of employers in Texas. The Texas Legislature passed two significant amendments, SB 45 and HB 21, to the Texas Labor Code, which...more
In a unanimous opinion in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, the California Supreme Court ruled on the important practical question of whether the “regular rate of compensation” for calculating meal or rest break premium...more
7/19/2021
/ CA Supreme Court ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Rate of Pay ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Retroactive Application ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Orders
On May 7, 2021, Governor Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 702, which prohibits discrimination based on vaccination status or possession of an immunity passport. Specifically, the Act makes it unlawful for employers to refuse...more
5/17/2021
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
New Guidance ,
New Legislation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vaccinations ,
Vaccine Passports
Lawsuits from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community may require companies to consider new reasonable accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as transparent face masks for employees and clean writing tools for...more
Employers have continued to feel the impact of the 2018 California Supreme Court decision in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 4 Cal.5th 903 (2018). Today, the California Supreme Court in...more
1/15/2021
/ ABC Test ,
Borello Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
New Legislation ,
Retroactive Application ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage Orders
California employers who hired new employees may now apply for tax relief following Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement of the Main Street Hiring Tax Credit. As part of the emergency relief provided in Senate Bill 1447 to...more
With the United States experiencing the largest surge in cases since the COVID-19 crisis began, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) recently granted emergency-use authorization of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19...more
Currently, under the California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”), California employers with 50 or more employees must provide 12 weeks of job protection to employees to care for a seriously ill family member or for one’s own...more
On September 9, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1867, which supplements both the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act and California Executive Order N-51-20, with the result of providing some form of paid...more
Montana is often perceived as unfriendly to restrictive covenants in employment agreements. But in a decision last week, the Montana Supreme Court showed its willingness to enforce those covenants, when they contain...more
On April 7, 2020, several California cities and counties issued emergency orders requiring nonmedical essential workers and residents who are leaving their homes to wear face coverings. Face coverings may include cloth...more
In Kim v. Reins, the Supreme Court was faced with the following question: Do employees lose standing to pursue a PAGA claim if they settle and dismiss their individual claims for Labor Code violations? To the surprise of many...more
3/17/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Employment Litigation ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Reversal ,
Settlement Offer ,
Standing ,
State Labor Laws ,
Summary Judgment
Employees must be paid for time spent on their employer’s premises waiting for, and undergoing, required searches of bags and other property voluntarily brought to work, according to the California Supreme Court’s ruling...more
On October 10, 2019, California Governor Newsom signed a bill seeking to ban employers from requiring employees or applicants to sign arbitration agreements waiving their rights under the Labor Code or the state’s...more
On October 11, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 51, which will drastically change the requirements for employers who use arbitration agreements. Specifically, the new law bans employers from requiring, as a...more
10/17/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
FEHA ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mandatory Arbitration ,
State Labor Laws
On September 18, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 5, which clarifies when workers should be considered “employees” under the California Labor Code and the California Unemployment Insurance Code,...more
10/9/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Governor Newsom ,
Health Insurance ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Payroll Taxes ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Staffing Agencies ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Withholding Tax
On September 18, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 5, which clarifies when workers should be considered “employees” under the California Labor Code and the California Unemployment Insurance Code,...more
9/24/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Governor Newsom ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
When it comes to marijuana, the legal landscape is changing rapidly. Ten states, including California, have legalized recreational use. In more than twenty other states, some form of medical marijuana is legal....more