Garcia v. Stoneledge Furniture LLC, 102 Cal. App. 5th 41 (2024) - Summary: Although parties may delegate questions regarding the validity of an arbitration agreement to the arbitrator, the delegation presupposes the existence...more
Mattioda v. Nelson, 98 F.4th 1164 (9th Cir. 2024) - Summary: Disability-based harassment claims are available under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act....more
5/10/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Breach of Contract ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Labor Code ,
Muldrow v City of St Louis ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Stock Options ,
Title VII ,
Wages
Summary - To qualify as a transportation worker for purposes of the FAA, an employee’s relationship to the movement of goods must be sufficiently close enough to conclude that the employee’s work plays a tangible and...more
Summary: An employer waives its right to arbitration if it fails to pay its share of the arbitration filing fee within 30 days of the payment’s due date....more
Employers, it is time, once again, to update your existing handbooks and employment policies. California enacted several new laws that will affect your business beginning Jan. 1, 2024. On the flip side, in a win for...more
Summary -
Emergency Rule 9, which tolled statutes of limitations for six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is valid and operates to extend the time to file a civil suit for a PAGA claim as well as the time period to...more
9/22/2023
/ Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
California ,
FEHA ,
Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) ,
Labor Code ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Remand ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statute of Limitations
Kuciemba v. Victory Woodworks Inc., 14 Cal. 4th 993 (2023)...
Adolph v. Uber Technologies Inc., 14 Cal. 5th 1104 (2023)...
Woodworth v. Loma Linda University Medical Center, No. E072704, 2023 WL 4701976 (Cal. Ct. App. July...more
Summary -
An employer must accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs unless it can show that doing so would “result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.” ...more
A plaintiff maintains standing to pursue a non-individual PAGA claim in state court when his individual PAGA claim is sent to arbitration pursuant to an arbitration agreement...more
After more than three years of litigation, the Ninth Circuit has held that AB 51, California’s attempt to ban mandatory employment arbitration agreements, is unenforceable....more
Effective Feb. 3, 2023, California has implemented new, “permanent,” COVID-19 standards. The new regulations were adopted by Cal/OSHA on Dec. 15, 2022, but only became effective upon the review and final approval by the...more
Summary -
Where an employer can and does track the exact time in minutes that its employees work each shift, and those records show that employees were not paid for all the time they worked, neutral time rounding is not a...more
12/8/2022
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitrators ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
FEHA ,
FMCSA ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Judgment on the Pleadings ,
Preemption ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Retroactivity ,
Split of Authority ,
Standing ,
State Labor Laws ,
Timekeeping ,
Wage and Hour
Introducing: the California Civil Rights Department No, this is not a new government agency. Rather, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) was rebranded as the Civil Rights Department, or CRD, to more...more
9/23/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Food Service Workers ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Meda v. AutoZone Inc., No. B311398, 2022 WL 2813819 (Cal. Ct. App. July 19, 2022) -
Summary: Where an employer has not expressly advised its employees that they may use a seat during their work and does not place seats at...more
Viking River Cruises Inc. v. Moriana, 142 S.Ct. 1906 (2022) -
Summary: The FAA “preempts the rule of Iskanian insofar as it precludes division of Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA") actions into individual and...more
On May 23, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc., holding unpaid meal and rest break premiums can give rise to derivative claims for waiting time...more
Summary: Good-faith dispute about employment status of freelancer who modeled in sporadic one- or two-day increments precluded imposition of waiting-time penalties pursuant to Labor Code section 203. ...more
5/17/2022
/ ABC Test ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Arbitration ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Code ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
A new, third revised version of the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (“ETS”) has been approved by Cal/OSHA, and is expected to go into effect on May 6, 2022. This updated ETS will likely be in effect...more
DePuy Synthes Sales Inc. v. Howmedica Osteonics Corp., 28 F.4th 956 (9th Cir. 2022) -
Summary: Motion to transfer venue was properly denied where forum-selection clause in employment agreement was void under California...more
Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc., 12 Cal. 5th 703 (2022) -
Summary: Labor Code section 1102.6, not McDonnell Douglas, provides the standard for evaluating whistleblower retaliation claims under Labor Code...more
On March 3, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The act passed both houses of the legislature with broad bipartisan support. The act, which...more
The newest version of the Cal/OSHA ETS goes into effect today, Jan. 14, 2022, and will expire on April 15, 2022. A redline of the recently expired Cal/OSHA ETS and the newest Cal/OSHA ETS is available HERE. The newest...more
Gunther v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., 72 Cal. App. 5th 334 (2021) -
Summary: Heightened civil penalties under Labor Code section 226.3 ($250 & $1,000) do not apply to all violations of section 226, only when the employer...more
2021 brought several changes to the workplace, but employers should have less to fear following this Payne & Fears conference. Join us for a full day of seminars on the most pressing employment law topics, transmitted to you...more
9/24/2021
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Business Expenses ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Dress Codes ,
Employee Evaluations ,
Employee Monitoring ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Gender Identity ,
Mental Health ,
OSHA ,
Over-Time ,
Political Speech ,
Productivity ,
Rate of Pay ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Social Media Policy ,
Timekeeping ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Statements ,
Webinars
Zuniga v. Alexandria Care Ctr., LLC, 67 Cal. App. 5th 871 (2021)
Summary: An expert may rely on inadmissible evidence to form an opinion if the source is reliable.
Facts: Plaintiff Rosalinda Zuniga was employed by...more