Seyfarth Synopsis: While employers usually don’t need to pay for travel time associated with an employee’s ordinary commute, federal and California law create exceptions that employers should know—particularly when company policy requires a certain type of transportation.
For many of us, automobile traffic—at least during the B.C. (before covid) era—has been as synonymous with California as its sunny weather
Continue Reading Payroll Potholes: Paying for Travel Time
Seyfarth Synopsis: Governor Newsom has approved some of the bills most feared by employers, including bills to ban employment arbitration, extend FEHA administrative deadlines, codify the Dynamex ABC test, and create San Francisco-style lactation-accommodation requirements. Governor Newsom also vetoed a few bills that we might expect to be re-introduced in the same or similar form during 2020.
Governor Newsom acted
Continue Reading Legislative Update: Governor Newsom Pens Halloween Terrors for California Employers
Seyfarth Synopsis: California Labor Code § 221 states it is “unlawful for any employer to collect or receive from an employee any part of wages … paid … to said employee.” In other words, employers cannot just take money back to correct an overpayment of wages. But what if you discover you’ve accidentally overpaid an employee?
It’s not a back
Continue Reading No Money Back Guarantee!
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has passed a series of bills for Governor Newsom to consider. He now has until October 13 to approve or veto bills such as a Dynamex codification bill and a San Francisco-inspired lactation accommodation bill.
Friday, September 13th marked the Legislature’s last day to pass bills to Governor Newsom’s desk for approval in the first
Continue Reading California Employment Legislative Update: Governor Newsom Gets to Work
Seyfarth Synopsis: A new set of proposed regulations requires all janitorial employees and their supervisors to receive two hours of in-person, interactive sexual harassment training every two years.
The Property Service Workers Protection Act of 2016 requires employers with at least one janitorial worker (including front line cleaners) to provide biennial sexual violence and harassment prevention training to janitorial employees
Continue Reading Time to Clean Up Janitorial Training
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California state assembly is set to vote on Senate Bill 171, a state analogue to the federal EEO-1 report, which would require employers with 100 or more employees to submit annual pay data reports to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, broken down by gender, race, ethnicity, and job category.
Pay Data Reporting at the
Continue Reading California To Protect Pay Equity Reporting Requirements From Federal Challenge?
Seyfarth Synopsis: With the recent partial shutdown of the federal government, many federal contractors have faced tough decisions balancing their reduced revenue with their desire to keep their workforce intact. One potential solution is to impose mandatory employee furloughs to reduce costs. This cost-saving measure has some risks peculiar to California that are worth a look.
The Partial Federal Government
Continue Reading Employee Furloughs – What To Do?
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: Several bills of concern to California employers failed to receive the house of origin blessing and passage by the June 1 deadline, including this year’s attempts at PAGA reform, criminal history inquiries, and medical marijuana accommodations, while a boatload of others, most notably sexual harassment-related bills, sail on. The measures being passed to their opposite house for consideration
Continue Reading 2018 California Legislative Update: What Survived the House of Origin Deadline?
Seyfarth Synopsis: There are many different ways to pay employees in California. What is the scoop behind paying commissions? What are commission agreements and how have courts deciphered their coded mysteries? Read on for the most current intelligence from the SIA (Seyfarth Intelligence Agency).
Rogue Nation: The Rough Terrain Surrounding Commissions
What are commissions? Labor Code Section 204.1 defines a
Continue Reading ComMISSION Impossible: The Pitfalls of California Commission Agreements