Seyfarth Synopsis: On September 9, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1867, which requires private employers with 500 or more employees nationwide to provide COVID-19-related supplemental paid sick leave to their California employees. Impacted employers must begin providing this leave no later than September 19, 2020.
On September 9, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1867 into law, creating
Continue Reading AB 1867: Supplemental Paid Sick Leave for All
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has passed a series of employment-related bills for Governor Newsom to consider. He has until September 30 to approve or veto these bills, most of which relate to leaves of absence and COVID relief.
Monday, August 31st (or, really, the wee hours of September 1) marked the Legislature’s last day to pass bills to Governor
Continue Reading California Employment Legislative Update: Time for Governor Newsom to Get to Work
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers offering bonuses to workers during the COVID-19 crisis must beware the famous saying that “wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.” Some bonuses trigger special rules that employers must follow to avoid unexpected liabilities in the time of COVID.
Readers of this blog know that California creates peculiar challenges
Continue Reading Bonuses in the Time of COVID: Avoiding California Pitfalls
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employment-related cases pending before the California Supreme Court concern various questions that sometimes seem technical, but the answers they elicit will have big consequences. Questions raised by the current crop of cases include standing to sue, the availability of certain claims and remedies, federal preemption of California laws, what counts as compensable time, and—that perennial favorite—how to interpret
Continue Reading 2019 Employment Law: Cases Pending in the California Supreme Court
Seyfarth Synopsis: Plaintiffs’ lawyers routinely invoke Labor Code provisions to conduct pre-litigation discovery by seeking employment records. For employers that scramble to comply with these often burdensome demands, we offer some practical tips on how to utilize the protections the law provides for employers and for the (perhaps) unsuspecting employees on whose purported behalf the request is made.
Have you
Continue Reading Request for Employment Records? Don’t Trust; Verify!
Seyfarth Synopsis: August 31 was the California Legislature’s last day to send bills to Governor Brown for his approval or veto by his September 30 deadline. Chief among them are bills addressing sexual harassment.
2018, the year of #MeToo, saw California Senators and Assembly Members introduce numerous bills on sexual harassment-prevention, often followed by their colleagues’ response of “me
Continue Reading California Legislative Update: Sexual Harassment, Other Bills Await Governor’s Signature
Non-California employers with non-exempt workers who work in California will be interested in the following piece, originally posted on Seyfarth’s Wage Hour Litigation Blog.
Seyfarth Summary: On July 12, 2018, the California Supreme Court agreed to address questions posed by the Ninth Circuit about whether California Labor Code provisions apply to an out-of-state employer whose employees work part of
Continue Reading Fasten Your Seat Belts: California Revisiting Oracle in Airline Cases
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers in California: be aware and prepare for new laws increasing minimum wages and mandating overtime pay for agricultural employees; expanding the California Fair Pay Act to race and ethnicity and to address prior salary consideration; imposing new restrictions on background checks and gig economy workers; and more. Small employers will be relieved the Governor vetoed expanded unpaid
Continue Reading 2016 California Labor and Employment Legislation Update: It’s Final!
By Nicholas Clements and Kerry Friedrichs
Well-intended employers often lament the various gotchas that await them down the dark and winding road that is the California Labor Code. Perhaps no turn in the road is more treacherous than the one at Wage Statement Junction. Here one crosses at extreme peril, for the California Legislature, in Labor Code section 226, has planted legal land mines that can blow up at the slightest provocation.
A Common Sense Question With a Less-Than-Intuitive Answer: “Can’t I avoid hazards if I just pay them the right amounts and on time?” Sadly, no, there’s much more to it. Labor Code section 226(a) lays out a long list of other requirements, some more sensible than others.
Not so Simple. Timely paychecks must be accompanied by a “simple” wage statement at least semi-monthly, and the wage statement must include nine distinct pieces of information for each employee:
Continue Reading Time to Revisit Your Pay Stubs?
Paga is a city in Ghana, well-known for its crocodile pools. PAGA, California’s Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, allows employees to sue their employers on behalf of themselves and other “aggrieved” employees to recover penalties for Labor Code violations. What do the two, other than a shared moniker, have in common? Run afoul of either and you’re bound to
Continue Reading Plaintiffs’ Bar Agog Over PAGA’s Subsequent Violations