Employment Law This Week®: FAA Arguably Preempts California Law, New CA Employment Laws for 2020, CA Consumer Privacy Act Amended
With the new year will come new laws that affect California employers. The following are the “A to Z” of changes in the laws that may affect your business in 2022. Under existing law, if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs at a...more
Assembly Bill 5 regulates economic activity and not speech, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held, affirming dismissal of a suit brought by freelance writers and photographers challenging the...more
The retroactive application of Dynamex may permit a Grubhub driver’s suit alleging he was misclassified as an independent contractor, according to a new decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit....more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in California Trucking Association v. Bonta, has reversed the preliminary injunction staying enforcement of AB 5 (now Labor Code § 2775). ...more
In a rare victory for employers, a California Court of Appeal in Wilson v. The La Jolla Group, 2021 WL 940283 (3/12/2021) affirmed the trial court’s denial of class certification of independent contractors’ wage and hour...more
On January 14, 2021, the California Supreme Court held that the “ABC Test” for classifying workers as independent contractors applies retroactively. The high court first articulated this standard, which makes it tougher for...more
It was quite a week for the gig economy in California. This is the second of a two-part update; last week we reported on a union- and driver-led California Supreme Court challenge to Proposition 22, the November 2020 voter...more
On January 14, 2021, the California Supreme Court held in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int'l, Inc. that the ABC test for determining worker classification fashioned in its groundbreaking decision, Dynamex v. Superior...more
Since April 2018, when the California Supreme Court issued its Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018) decision, which radically changed the way in which courts differentiated between an...more
In November 2020, a California state appeals court ruled in People of the State of California v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County and Cal Cartage Transportation Express, LLC that the Federal Aviation Administration...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses operating in California have had all of eight months to adapt since Assembly Bill 5, a landmark piece of legislation governing their relationships with independent contractors, took effect on...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses operating in California have had all of eight months to adapt since Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”), a landmark piece of legislation governing their relationships with independent contractors, took...more
After reviewing the 2,203 pieces of proposed legislation introduced in the California legislature by the February 21 deadline, it’s obvious that one issue will dominate debate in the 2020 session: the continued fallout from...more
As we recently wrote here, Uber and Postmates (and two of their drivers) to file an eleventh-hour lawsuit seeking to enjoin the enforcement of California’s controversial new independent contractor law – known as AB 5 –...more
As we have written here, the day before California’s controversial AB 5 was set to go into effect, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law as to...more
The battle over the scope and applicability of the so-called “ABC test” in determining California employers’ potential liability under wage and hour and other state labor laws continues unabated....more
On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, the California Supreme Court agreed to review a second case raising questions as to the scope and retroactivity of its landmark 2018 Dynamex decision....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the State of California from enforcing AB 5 against motor carriers. The court provided a fulsome analysis demonstrating that the Federal...more
As we recently wrote here, just hours before California’s controversial AB 5 went into effect, a federal court in San Diego issued a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) to enjoin enforcement of the independent contractor...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On the heels of last week’s federal court order temporarily blocking enforcement of AB 5 by the State of California, a California state court in Los Angeles reached the same conclusion, finding the Federal...more
Following the challenges to AB 5, California’s controversial new independent contractor law, can be a difficult endeavor. Every day seems to bring a new development....more
Independent Contractor Agreements Should be Reviewed - With Assembly Bill 5 taking effect Jan. 1, public agencies should not overlook potential joint employer liability claims, which may become more common under AB 5....more
From the California Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dynamex to the passage of dozens of new employment laws, 2019 was an important year for California employers. While some of these new laws were discussed here, this...more
We have written previously about California’s new statute, referred to as AB 5, which codifies and expands the “ABC test” for independent contractors set forth in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court....more
On January 1, 2020, California’s new worker classification law known as Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”), goes into effect. AB 5 codifies the three-factor “ABC” test adopted by the California Supreme Court in its 2018 Dynamex...more