(The California Wage Theft Prevention Act Is Meant to Stop Thieving Employers)
We’ve written about the CA Wage Theft Prevention Act before. The Act went into effect in 2012 and added section 2810.5 to the Labor Code. The Act requires that, within seven days of hire, all employers must provide a new employee with a written notice containing specified information at the time of hire, in the language the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information to that employee.
The information that must be provided to all newly hired employees, as well as to those whose employment terms have changed, includes obvious items like compensation rates of pay and regular paydays as well as less obvious items like the employer’s real business name and current worker’s compensation carrier.
With the recent passing of California’s new Paid Sick Leave law, the Labor Commissioner has issued a new template Notice to Employee that employers should be using. The updated notice is available here.
Remember, these are technical requirements and come with a hefty technical violation price. An employer who violates the Wage Theft Act is subject to a penalty of $100 for each employee aggrieved per pay period if the employer is a first time offender. Subsequent offenders pay double as a penalty for violations.
Hm. Who’s the thief, again?
