It May Be Time To Update Those Arbitration Agreements Again!
Back in the “good old days,” arbitration agreements barred just about any type of civil litigation that was filed in court. Then, as we reported in 2014, the California Supreme Court determined that...
View ArticleThe “Real Slim Shady’s” Days May Be Numbered (At Least in the Workplace)!
Fed up with hearing “very offensive” songs like Eminem’s “Stan” and Too $hort’s “B*job Betty” on the job, Stephanie Sharp and several other employees (including a male) filed a hostile work...
View ArticleUnder-the-Radar Concessions in Adolph Could Shorten PAGA’s Parade Of Horribles
On May 10, 2023, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., a closely watched case that will decide whether a Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) plaintiff...
View Article12 California Counties and Municipalities Increasing Minimum Wage Rates on...
As we previously covered here, the State of California and select California cities increased the minimum wage effective January 1, 2023. Now, another round of minimum wage increases from a dozen...
View ArticleDon’t Expect to Discharge That PAGA Debt in Bankruptcy
As we have written here on multiple occasions, the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) disadvantages employers in several ways. Despite permitting recovery similar to what might be obtained in a...
View ArticleEEOC Releases New Employer Guidance On Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
As we covered here, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is effective today! As a reminder, the PWFA extends the requirements of the ADA to employees with known limitations related to, affected...
View ArticleIf We’ve Said It Once, We’ve Said It 1,000 Times… Pay Those Arbitration Fees...
Many California employers and their counsel remain blissfully ignorant of the latest “gotcha” law in California, which can easily derail an otherwise perfectly planned arbitration. Back in 2019, the...
View ArticleWest Hollywood Wins The Gold Medal For Highest Minimum Wage In The Nation —...
The so-called “Fight for 15” – those widespread protests for a $15 minimum wage – are so passé now! As of July 1, 2023, West Hollywood takes the crown for the highest mandated minimum wage in the...
View ArticleCrisis Averted: California Employers Are Not Liable for “Take-Home” COVID Cases.
Last week, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that employers are not liable to nonemployees who contract COVID-19 from employee household members that bring the virus home from their...
View ArticleCourt of Appeal Clarifies Employers’ Expense Reimbursement Obligations for...
California Labor Code section 2802 (“Section 2802”) requires employers to reimburse employees for “all necessary expenditures or losses” they incur as a “direct consequence of the discharge of …...
View ArticleAdolph Parts With Viking River, Opening Path for Arbitration-Bound Plaintiffs...
On July 17, 2023, approximately one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Viking River Cruises, the California Supreme Court issued its highly-anticipated decision in Adolph v. Uber...
View ArticleSCOTUS Provides Further Support For Staying PAGA Court Actions Pending...
With Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. in the books, it is now clear that Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) plaintiffs do not lose standing to pursue representative claims in court when their...
View ArticleOrganizations May Sue Employers Based On Time Spent Opposing Unfair Competition
Under the unfair competition law (UCL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq., a plaintiff may bring a cause of action for any “unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice.”...
View ArticlePut it in Writing: Los Angeles Imposes New Requirements on Employers of...
As readers may know, the Los Angeles Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance took effect on July 1, 2023. The new law imposes additional requirements on businesses in the City of Los Angeles who have...
View ArticleIs Arbitration Becoming “Just Somebody That We Used to Know”? — The Beginning...
When Congress passed and President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“the Act”) last year, we predicted it was just the beginning of an all-out...
View ArticleCalifornia Expands FEHA Liability to Include “Institutional Agents” of Employers
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is already one of the most employee-friendly state civil rights laws in the country. Until now, it was not clear whether employees could sue not...
View ArticleCalifornia Expands Prohibition Against Non-Competes
On September 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 699, which amends California Business & Professions Code Section 16600 to prohibit an employer from entering into or...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Broadly Construes Exemption to Federal Arbitration Act
The Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion that signals some movement in the direction away from enforcing employment-related arbitration agreements. In Miller v. Amazon.com, Case No....
View ArticleIndustry and Labor Serve Up $20 Minimum Wage Deal For Fast Food Workers
A two-year standoff between the fast food industry and labor unions ended this week as stakeholders announced a deal that will increase the minimum wage to $20 for California workers at fast food...
View ArticleJust in Time for Flu Season, California Expands Sick Leave Requirements
Last week, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 616 (“SB 616”), an amendment to California’s statewide paid sick leave law that significantly increases the amount of leave that employers need...
View ArticleIn a Surprise Move, California Enacts Boatload of New Pro-Employer Laws –...
In what has become an annual tradition, California – that fabled workers’ paradise on earth – has enacted a slew of new laws that, come January, may keep even the most hearty HR professionals up at...
View ArticleTrade Secrets Claim Against Company Not Severable From Claim Against...
A California semiconductor manufacturer cannot pursue in court its claims of trade secret misappropriation against a rival company while simultaneously arbitrating the same claims against the...
View ArticleIs the California Supreme Court About to Throw Employers a Bone on PAGA...
On November 8, 2023, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc., a case that could have profound implications for the future of Private Attorneys General...
View ArticleNovember 2023 California Employment Law Notes
We invite you to review our newly-posted November 2023 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law...
View ArticleThe Case for a PAGA Adequacy Requirement
In Arias v. Superior Court, 46 Cal. 4th 969 (2009), the California Supreme Court ruled that Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions need not satisfy class action requirements, and in the fourteen...
View ArticleNew Year, New Overtime Exemption Rates for Computer Software Employees and...
To determine the minimum rate of pay or salary threshold applicable to certain exemptions from overtime regulations under California law, the Department of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) uses the...
View ArticleDuck and Cover! Two New “Nuclear Verdicts” Put California Employers On Alert
The Los Angeles Superior Court has bestowed some remarkable gifts upon plaintiffs this holiday season. Two juries have issued gigantic verdicts in favor of individual plaintiffs in separate employment...
View ArticleCourts Are Overwhelmingly Staying Non-Individual Claims When Compelling...
As we wrote previously, last summer’s blockbuster decision in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., 14 Cal. 5th 1104 (2023) contained a notable silver lining. In ruling that a Private Attorneys General...
View ArticleNew Trial Threat To California Employers Has Arrived
A newly enacted, under-the-radar statute in California could undermine efforts by employers to challenge the expert opinion testimony regarding alleged emotional distress offered by employees at...
View ArticleTrial Courts May Control, But They May Not Dismiss, PAGA Claims On...
The California Supreme Court has issued its much-anticipated decision in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc., determining whether Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims can be dismissed as...
View ArticleJanuary 2024 California Employment Law Notes
A Single Incident Of Harassing Conduct May Create A Hostile Work Environment - Beltran v. Hard Rock Hotel Licensing, Inc., 97 Cal. App. 5th 865 (2023) - Stephanie Beltran, a server at the Hard Rock...
View ArticleIt’s Almost Valentine’s Day – And Love and Noncompetes Are In the Air!
As we previously reported, California recently enacted AB 1076, which reinforces the state’s broad statutory ban on noncompete agreements. The law took effect on January 1, 2024, and expressly...
View ArticleCalifornia’s Minimum Wage Is Spiking Again (by 25 Percent!) – This Is Not An...
California’s minimum wage is already one of the highest in the nation at $16 per hour (although Sacramento’s efforts pale in comparison to those of cities and towns across the Golden State, which have...
View ArticleShowdown at the Ballot Box – Business and Labor Load Up on Ammunition for...
All eyes will be on the United States this November as Americans head to the polls in the upcoming 2024 general election. Likely to go somewhat less noticed among the Presidential, Senate, and House...
View ArticleNo Fighting! CalOSHA Releases its Long-Awaited Model Workplace Violence...
On September 30, 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 553 (“SB 553”) into law. Among other things, the new legislation added section 6401.9 to the California Labor Code (“Section 6401.9”), which...
View ArticleCalifornia State Senate Proposes “Intersectional” Approach to Overlapping...
On February 14, 2024, California State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas introduced Senate Bill 1137 (“SB 1137”), a bill that would make California the first state to specifically recognize the concept of...
View ArticleBroadway Actor’s Race Discrimination Claims Sent Back to the Underworld in...
A federal court in New York has held that a Broadway musical’s casting decisions—specifically replacing one actor with another actor of a different race—are shielded by the First Amendment from...
View ArticleMarch 2024 California Employment Law Notes
We invite you to review our newly-posted March 2024 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law.
View ArticleCalifornia Pay Data Reporting Is Due May 8, 2024 (Now With New Requirements!)
As readers may know, California requires private employers of 100 or more employees and/or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors to annually report pay, demographic, and other workforce...
View ArticleTerminating Sanctions Entered Against Employee Who Deleted Relevant Text...
Jones v. Riot Hospitality Group LLC, 2024 WL 927669 (9th Cir. 2024) - Alyssa Jones, a former waitress at a Scottsdale, Arizona bar, sued the owner of the bar and his company (Riot) for violations of...
View Article“Dispute” Does Not Exist Under Ending Forced Arbitration Act Until Employee...
Kader v. Southern Cal. Med. Ctr., Inc., 99 Cal. App. 5th 214 (2024) - The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (9 U.S.C. §§ 401, et seq.) became effective on March 3,...
View ArticleNever Work Another Friday, America! Bernie Sanders Unveils 32-Hour Workweek...
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act (the “Act”), a bill that, if enacted, would lower the threshold for a “standard” workweek by 20 percent, from 40 to 32...
View ArticleReally, Really Pay Those Arbitration Fees Within 30 Days – Really!
Hohenshelt v. Superior Court, 318 Cal. Rptr. 3d 475 (Cal. Ct. App. 2024) - For the seventh time since they became effective in 2020, the California Court of Appeal has published an opinion holding...
View ArticleWhistleblower Protection Laws Do Not Apply Outside the United States
Daramola v. Oracle Am., Inc., 92 F.4th 833 (9th Cir. 2024) - Tayo Daramola is a Canadian citizen who resided in Montreal at all relevant times and who worked for Oracle Canada, a wholly owned...
View ArticleEmployer May Not Challenge Voided Employment Agreements Via Interlocutory Appeal
Dominguez v. Better Mortgage Corp., 88 F.4th 782 (9th Cir. 2023) - Underwriter Lorenzo Dominguez filed this putative class and collective action against his former employer, alleging that the company...
View ArticleTrial Court May Not Dismiss PAGA Claims On Manageability Grounds
Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc., 15 Cal. 5th 582 (2024) - The California Supreme Court affirmed an appellate court judgment that “trial courts lack inherent authority to strike PAGA claims on...
View ArticlePrevailing Employer May Only Recover Costs If FEHA Action Was “Objectively...
Amanda Neeble-Diamond sued her employer for violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), but after a jury concluded she was an independent contractor rather than an employee, the trial...
View ArticleDismissal of Representative PAGA Claim Vacated Following Adolph v. Uber Techs.
Johnson v. Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC, 93 F.4th 459 (9th Cir. 2024) - The Ninth Circuit vacated a district court’s dismissal of a former employee’s “non-individual” Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA)...
View ArticleCalifornia Supreme Court Clarifies Scope of Compensable “Hours Worked”
On March 25, 2024, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors, Case No. S275431, providing additional guidance on compensable “hours worked” under...
View ArticleProposed “Right to Disconnect” Law Could End Those After-Hours Emails From...
With the sweeping presence of technology today, the boundary between work life and home life has become increasingly blurred. A new bill recently introduced to the California legislature seeks to...
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