Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers, take note—the long-awaited, new FEHA regulations related to national origin are about to take effect! Come July 1, 2018, new regulations on national origin under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act reflect a broad definition of national origin, codify existing case law, and intensify already strict regulations prohibiting harassment, discrimination, and retaliation based on national
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Addressing Alcoholism in the California Workplace
Seyfarth Synopsis: It has long been clear that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California law protect employees who suffer from alcoholism if it qualifies as a “disability.” Although courts have recognized the right of an employer to have legitimate work rules that prohibit alcohol use in the workplace, the line between having a protected disability and engaging
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2018 California Legislative Update: What Survived the House of Origin Deadline?
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
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Leave It To California – Post FMLA/CFRA/PDL Leave and FEHA
Seyfarth Synopsis: When must an employer provide leave time in addition to FMLA/CFRA-type leave as a reasonable accommodation? The answer to that question, as with many other leave-related questions, may depend on your location on the map.
Remember that early TV sitcom “Leave It To Beaver,” starring Jerry Mathers as the Beaver? “The Beave” constantly got into trouble
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A New Use of FEHA? Accessibility of On-Line Employment Applications
Please click on the below link for an interesting and timely article posted today on our sister blog, ADA Title III News & Insights:
Seyfarth Synopsis: Plaintiffs who pursued web accessibility actions under Title III of the ADA are now using website accessibility to test the limits of a different area of law – employment law – California’s Fair Employment
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Budding Development: States Requiring Employers to Tolerate Medical Cannabis Use
Seyfarth Synopsis: Can employers deny employment to people who use cannabis under a medical prescription authorized by state law? In more and more states, the answer is now “No.”
Changes in cannabis laws are creating a new haze for employers. What follows is a quick summary citing some (not all) states that now require employers to think twice before denying
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2018 California Legislative Update: It’s Spring! What Bills Have Sprung?
Seyfarth Synopsis: Dominating this spring’s planting of proposed employment-related legislation are bills aimed at ending sexual harassment and promoting gender equity. Among the secondary crops are bills regarding accommodation, leave, criminal history, and wage and hour law. It threatens to be another bitter fall harvest for California’s employer community.
California legislators stormed into the second half of the 2017-18 legislative
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Into the Weeds: Will California Employment Law Protect Medical Marijuana Users?
Seyfarth Synopsis: A proposed bill would amend California employment discrimination law to protect medical marijuana users.
California—already famous (or infamous) as a sanctuary in the immigration area—could soon become a sanctuary for medical marijuana users. A proposed bill would protect medical marijuana users from employment discrimination.
Currently, California employers can deny employment to users of marijuana, even if the use
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#Time’s Up? Not Yet, For Harassment Claims
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has introduced a new bipartisan bill, AB 1870, that would give all employees—not just those claiming sexual harassment—three years to file DFEH complaints of unlawful discrimination, instead of the one year provided by current law.
More time to report discrimination
With the #MeToo movement sweeping the nation, California legislators are introducing bills aimed at giving
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Recent Pay Equity Cases Show That Such Cases Are Ill-Suited For Class Treatment
We’re pleased to share a thoughtful look at whether lawsuits alleging illegal pay disparities under California law are suitable as class actions. This post, recently featured on Seyfarth’s Pay Equity Issues & Insights Blog, provides some compelling reasons to argue that they’re not.
Seyfarth Synopsis: Over the past few years we have seen groundbreaking changes to equal pay laws
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