As many predicted, Democrats recaptured the House for the first time in eight years in yesterday’s midterm elections, while Republicans retained and strengthened their grip on the Senate. That will lead to a dynamic in...more
11/7/2018
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Congressional Committees ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Election Results ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Elections ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
General Elections ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
Members of Congress ,
Paid Leave ,
Political Parties ,
Senate Committees ,
Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Elections ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. House ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
As we have covered extensively, the California Supreme Court dropped a proverbial bomb earlier this year in the Dynamex case when it adopted a new legal standard known as the “ABC Test,” making it much more difficult for...more
10/31/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactivity ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Orders
Wrapping up a whirlwind weekend, California Governor Jerry Brown just signed several pieces of legislation that will create new employer obligations in the areas of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Specifically,...more
10/2/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Agricultural Workers ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Board of Directors ,
Breastfeeding ,
Bystander ,
Cal Code of Civil Procedure ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Workers ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
FEHA ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Governor Brown ,
Governor Vetoes ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Human Trafficking ,
Joint and Several Liability ,
Joint Liability ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Motor Carriers ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Disparagement Provisions ,
OSHA ,
Ports ,
Privacy Laws ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Record Retention ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Section 998 ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Testimony ,
Third-Party Liability ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trucking Industry ,
Undue Hardship ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
On September 20, Governor Brown signed AB 2605, which provides that petroleum facility employees in safety-sensitive positions and are covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement are exempt from the requirement that...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
9/17/2018
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Background Checks ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Collective Action Waivers ,
Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Baker ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) ,
Licenses ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OFCCP ,
Opinion Letter ,
Opioid ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Gap ,
Pending Legislation ,
Portable Benefits ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Work ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Union Dues ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Injury
It’s been a nice summer recess as the California Legislature has been on break, with Members returning to their home districts. But that respite is about to end as the Legislature reconvenes on August 6. There will be a...more
8/2/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DFEH ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
FEHA ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRA ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Volks Rule ,
Wage and Hour
As many of you will recall from last year, Governor Brown signed legislation to prevent employers from asking about or relying on salary history information when making hiring decisions. That legislation, Assembly Bill 168...more
As we discussed in our last blog post, California employers received some rare good news in recent days. Bills to expand California’s paid sick leave requirement and to require employers to accommodate medical marijuana use...more
6/1/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Arbitration ,
Board of Directors ,
Breastfeeding ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Data Breach ,
Discrimination ,
DLSE ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Governor Brown ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Immigration Records ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Local Ordinance ,
Pay Data ,
Pending Legislation ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Trucking Industry ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
It’s not often that we get to report good news on this blog. But last week, two significant bills that would have imposed new requirements on California employers failed to advance past the Assembly Appropriations...more
5/30/2018
/ Failed Legislation ,
Governor Brown ,
Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act 2014 ,
Local Ordinance ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Paid Leave ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
If you’ve been following the legal fight over Seattle’s 2015 proposal to permit ride-sharing drivers who work for companies such as Uber and Lyft to organize and form the country’s first gig economy unions, you might feel...more
5/14/2018
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Appeals ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
Lyft ,
Price-Fixing ,
Ridesharing ,
State Action Doctrine ,
Uber ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
As we previously discussed in this blog, last year Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to prevent employers from asking about salary history information. That legislation, Assembly Bill 168 (Eggman), went into effect on...more
4/27/2018
/ Ban the Box ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Pay ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
As most employers in California know, meal and rest period litigation has been a hot area for more than a decade, troubling employers across all industries. This is largely because state law provides extremely rigid...more
As we have previously discussed, one of the hottest gig economy issues to dominate political and public policy debate has been “portable” benefits – the concept that gig economy workers should have flexible, portable benefits...more
February 16 was the deadline to introduce new bills in the California Legislature. By that date, nearly 2,200 bills were introduced. While that may seem like a staggering amount of legislative proposals (especially for a...more
2/28/2018
/ Agricultural Workers ,
Amended Legislation ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Board of Directors ,
Breastfeeding ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Construction Workers ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DLSE ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FEHA ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Human Trafficking ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Independent Contractors ,
Janitorial Services ,
Labor Commissioners ,
Lead Poisoning ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Minimum Wage ,
Minor Children ,
Misclassification ,
Notice Requirements ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Leave ,
Payroll Records ,
Penalties ,
Personal Services ,
Portable Benefits ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Safety ,
Public Sector ,
Public Works ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Testimony ,
Trump Administration ,
Undocumented Immigrants ,
Undue Hardship ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Workplace Safety
For the first time, a large, publicly traded company—Japanese web-business GMO Internet—has announced that it will soon offer its employees the chance to receive their pay in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency: bitcoin....more
2/2/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Compensation ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Market Value ,
IRS ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Wage and Hour
If you’re a California employer, perhaps no single law strikes fear into your heart quite as much as the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA). PAGA allows individual “aggrieved employees” to bring...more
1/31/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) ,
Labor Code ,
Misclassification ,
Notice Requirements ,
Over-Time ,
Prejudice ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Standing ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
One of the more controversial bills introduced in the California Legislature in 2017, which was eligible to be brought up this month, has been held and will not move forward.
AB 5 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher...more
Technology seems to be advancing faster than we can keep up. These advances impact the employer community as well—even regarding basic things such as how, when, and in what manner wages are paid.
Take two recent examples...more
1/22/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Foreign Currency ,
IRS ,
Minimum Wage ,
Mobile Apps ,
Over-Time ,
Payroll Periods ,
Technology Sector ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Deductions
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. November was no...more
12/7/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Electronic Filing ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Workweek ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Fines ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Harassment ,
Independent Contractors ,
IRS ,
Joint Employers ,
LGBTQ ,
Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
Paid Leave ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tax Penalties ,
Title VII ,
Uber ,
UK ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules ,
Workplace Illness and Injury Reporting
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. October was no...more
11/3/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Ban the Box ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Training ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Brown ,
GrubHub ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
New Rules ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
Over-Time ,
Parental Leave ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Proposed Rules ,
Restraining Orders ,
Retaliation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
State Legislatures ,
Tip-Pooling ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblowers
Over the last several years, the level of employer complaints about PAGA has reached a deafening crescendo. For some time now, employers have expressed deep concern about abusive litigation tactics and “extortionate” PAGA...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. August was no...more
9/9/2017
/ Affirmative Action ,
Appeals ,
Audio Recording ,
Class Action ,
Classification ,
College Admissions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gig Economy ,
Green Cards ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Hurricane Harvey ,
Identity Theft ,
Independent Contractors ,
NLRB ,
On-Demand Services ,
Online Platforms ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Data ,
Popular ,
Standing ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
Vetting ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wellness Programs
Joining a growing list of state and local governments, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee today signed an ordinance which will ban employers from asking job applicants about their salary histories. The new ordinance will go into...more
As we discussed recently, this was a significant week in the California Legislature, as the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees decided the fate of hundreds of bills in announcing which bills made it off the...more
5/31/2017
/ Ban the Box ,
Bids ,
Child Care ,
EMTs ,
Failed Legislation ,
Farm Workers ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Higher Education Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Trafficking ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
LGBTQ ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
OSHA ,
Parental Leave ,
Prevailing Wages ,
Public Works ,
Raids ,
Reproductive Discrimination ,
Tax Credits ,
Veterans ,
Wage and Hour
Several weeks ago, we asked if the concept of portable benefits for gig economy workers was one step closer to reality, with rumors swirling of imminent federal legislation forthcoming. Well, this issue just took a big leap...more