Teleworking: Amazing or amazingly complex?
Cell phone communications, emails, and texts have been around for decades. According to JB Knowledge’s 2020 Construction Technology Report, 93 percent of construction industry workers use smartphones for work purposes....more
Your assistant sends you an email late in the evening (way after the 5:00 hour) and reminds you that you have an appointment in the morning. You respond: “Thanks for the reminder. Could you please make sure that I have...more
It seems every week another call center case pops up. These are extremely dangerous cases for employers and that is why I keep writing (or, harping) about them, as a warning to employers, not only those who operate call...more
If an employer adopts a contract or custom of paying employees for pre- or post-shift activities that are not otherwise compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), it can impose conditions on such pay, including...more
In Perry et al. v. City of New York, the Second Circuit upheld a large jury verdict in favor of a collective of workers regarding off-the-clock work. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the principle that employers will...more
Federal and state wage and hour litigation has been an area of concentration for Industrial/Organizational Psychologists for decades. These cases address alleged discrimination in wage-based employment practices such as...more
Please join us on December 8, 2022, from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. PT for “California Employment Law Update: Tips for Staying Compliant in 2023” as Nossaman’s Allison Callaghan, Randy Boyer and Pavneet Singh Mac discuss new California...more
U.S. Department of Labor Publishes Proposed Rule on Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act - On October 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a proposed rule updating the...more
Beginning January 1, 2024, and following the passage of Assembly Bill 2188, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) will add employee protections against discrimination based on off-the-job cannabis use with a...more
NOTE FROM ROBIN: In March, I began a series of very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. The first installment covered discrimination in general, the second installment covered religious...more
California Lawmakers Propose a Four-Day Workweek - The California State Assembly introduced AB 2932, a bill that would shorten the regular workweek for California workers from 40 hours to 32 hours for businesses with 500+...more
How many times have I written about working time cases, so called “off the clock” cases, where the claimed compensable time arises from preliminary or postliminary activities that are tied to (or not) the main job of the...more
Two years ago, these words were seldom used in the business context – remote workers, hybrid schedule, and essential workers. Now they are the norm. During the pandemic, many employers have embraced telework opportunities for...more
Many employers believe that if an employee (or many employees) perform a tiny amount of work, or work-like activity, before their shifts, that brief off-the-clock, activity cannot be “working time” under the FLSA. This is the...more
Although the unpaid time employees spent booting up their computers was relatively small, it was compensable and the employer failed to establish the practical administrative difficulty of estimating the time at issue, which...more
The thorny issue of what constitutes “working time” is always causing headaches for employers and the pandemic period has increased these concerns greatly, with demands made for compensation for testing time, vaccination...more
Healthcare employers are not immune to the outbreak of wage and hour and PAGA claims that are plaguing California businesses. As healthcare is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the country, it places a...more
CDF Labor Law has designed a series of complimentary webinars on employment-related topics specifically designed for our friends and colleagues in the healthcare industry. CDF’s Healthcare Education Week will run October 4-8,...more
Background: Under California law, employers must provide non-exempt employees with one 30-minute meal period that begins no later than the end of the fifth hour of work and another 30-minute meal period that begins no...more
An unpaid meal break can become a very expensive lunch for an employer, but there are ways to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to try and minimize the risk. Identifying the Potential Problem - The...more
Earlier this year, became, for many of us, part of our “new normal.” And such arrangements are likely to continue in the future. With the number of new infections continuing to rise throughout the United States, many...more
COVID-19 forced many companies to quickly jump into the realm of teleworking or to drastically expand existing programs. What policies should employers institute and enforce to discourage off-the-clock work? Do employers need...more
I have written several times about employees working from home, e.g. telecommuting, and how employers must carefully keep track of their hours to avoid unauthorized overtime. There are situations, however, that arise...more
Barriga v. 99 Cents Only Stores LLC, 2020 WL 3481717 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) - Sofia Wilton Barriga filed this lawsuit against her employer, 99 Cents Only, alleging that the “zero-tolerance” policy requiring its stores to...more
David v. Queen of the Valley Med. Ctr., 2020 WL 3529683 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) - Registered nurse Joana David sued her former employer, Queen of the Valley Medical Center, for allegedly failing to pay her for meal breaks...more