On March 4, 2019, the California Supreme Court ruled in Cal Fire Local 2881 et. al. v. California Public Employees' Retirement System that public retirement system members do not have a vested right to purchase "airtime" – nonqualified service credit unrelated to public service ...
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court issued an important decision for employers that rejects the application of the federal de minimis defense to unpaid wage claims arising under California law. In Troester v. Starbucks, Case No. S234969 (July 26, 2018), the Supreme Court held that California law prohibits requiring employees to "routinely work for minutes off the clock without compensation ...
California employers should assess their meal period policies and practices in light of the California Supreme Court's February 25, 2021, decision in Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC (Donohue). This ruling: (1) prohibits California employers from rounding time punches for meal periods and (2) holds that time records showing non-compliant meal periods will raise a rebuttable presumption of liability for meal period violations ...
In Union of Medical Marijuana Patients v. City of San Diego, the California Supreme Court unanimously held that the City of San Diego failed to analyze the potential environmental impacts of its medical marijuana dispensary law. While the main issue in this case was the definition of a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the ruling has important ramifications for the legal cannabis market as a whole ...
On December 22, 2016, in Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc., Case No. S224853, the California Supreme Court issued a split decision on rest periods. In a decision in which four justices concurred, and two concurred and dissented, in part, the Court held that employers “must relieve their employees of all duties and relinquish any control over how employees spend their break time ...
On August 3, 2020, the California Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., clarifying the bounds of legitimate competition under California tort and antitrust law. The Court’s ruling generally came down in favor of encouraging competition, reducing claims for tortious interference with contract, and decreasing the risk of litigation arising from normal competitive activity ...
On March 2, 2017, the California Supreme Court determined that when a public employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the communications are subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), if those communications are not otherwise exempt from disclosure. In a unanimous opinion, the Court in City of San Jose v ...
Key Points Employees again are entitled to up to 80 hours of employer-paid sick leave for COVID-related absences through September 30, 2022, retroactive from January 1, 2022 Vaccine related absences are now covered absences for entitlement to paid sick leave In certain instances, employers may require employees to provide documentation of COVID test results for themselves or family members in order to receive the paid sick leave On February 9, 2022, Governor Newsom signed Senat
October 18, 2023 By: Leah Lively California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed SB 525 into law, which amends the California Labor Code to set industry minimum wage requirements for nearly all healthcare workers, whether they are hourly or salaried employees, or independent contractors. The law also provides these workers with an independent private right of action to enforce these minimum wage requirements ...
At its Voting Meeting today the Commission adopted a new standard offer contract available to any Qualifying Facility (QF) of 20 megawatts or less seeking to sell electricity to a Commission-jurisdictional utility pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). Under PURPA, Commission-jurisdictional utilities must provide QFs the option of executing any existing PURPA contract for which they qualify ...
Article PDFJust when businesses thought they had figured out their Proposition 65 compliance strategies, the State of California, through the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), has proposed a substantial change that will drastically limit the use of the short-form safe harbor warning first authorized in 2018 ...
While relief has been granted for federal and California income tax filing and payment obligations (see prior coverage here and here) the same cannot be said for local property tax obligations. To avoid penalties, the next payment deadline for California property taxes remains April 10, 2020. Property tax payment deadlines are set by California state law and cannot be extended by either the Board of Equalization or local county assessor offices (see BOE statement) ...
Gov. Jerry Brown signed California Senate Bill 826 into law, which requires publicly held companies whose principal executive offices are located in California to have a minimum of one woman on their boards of directors by the end of 2019. Thereafter, women’s representation will have to increase based on the law, with what will be codified as Section 301 ...
On August 31, 2018 California’s legislature passed Senate Bill 1402. Unless vetoed by Governor Brown on or before September 30, SB 1402 will allow shippers to be held jointly liable for state labor and employment law violations by port trucking companies. The bill, which was authored by Senator Lara (D-Bell Gardens), is aimed at ending the purported “exploitation of truck drivers who haul cargo from California’s ports ...
On July 18, 2018, Governor Brown signed into law AB 2282, which amends the California Labor Code to clarify aspects of California's salary history and equal pay statutes. Labor Code Section 432.3 As we previously reported, effective January 1, 2018, Labor Code section 432.2 prohibits both public and private employers from asking job applicants for “salary history information ...
California employers operate under the most comprehensive Labor Code and legal regime in the Nation. The past year has challenged employers with unprecedented compliance during a global pandemic, which has already led to an influx of employment litigation. In addition to managing remote work forces in an ever-evolving regulatory climate, employers in 2021 will also be required to comply with a substantial number of legislative additions taking effect in the New Year ...
On July 24, 2020, the California Department of Public Health issued a new guidance document for all employers within California, entitled “COVID-19 Employer Playbook For a Safe Reopening ...
The emergence of COVID-19 has changed the workplace as we once knew it. California employers need to be prepared for unprecedented compliance challenges in recent legislation related to the ongoing pandemic, expanding leave protections, wage and hour compliance risks, and much more. Employers will need to review and adapt their policies and procedures in order to keep up in the coming year with California’s ever-changing employment laws ...
California has implemented procedures for employees to obtain unemployment, paid family leave, or disability insurance benefits related to COVID-19. Here are the main points: If employee is unable to work due to having or being exposed to COVID-19 and has the necessary supporting medical documentation, employee may file a Disability Insurance (DI) claim (1-week waiting period waived) ...
California Code of Regulations, title 2, section 11023 became effective April 1, 2016. It has new and specific requirements for employers’ anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, and anti-retaliation policies. California employers should revisit their policies to ensure they are in compliance with the new regulations and make sure the policies have been properly distributed to all employees ...
September 6, 2022 By: Jeffrey Dennis and Li-An Leonard Last week, the California Legislature failed to reach agreement on an extension to the employee exemption which applies to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which currently exempts employees and employee data from the CCPA requirements. As a result, this exemption will expire on December 31, 2022 – and will result in increasing burdens on California employers as it relates to employee privacy rights ...
Another year, another mandate for California employers. By July 1, 2024, nearly all employers in the Golden State must have in place a workplace violence prevention plan. While the compliance deadline may be three months away, employers need to immediately take action to ensure completion and training by July 1. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), workplace violence is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the U.S ...
New regulations issued by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council, effective July 1, 2017, limit California employers’ use of criminal history when making employment decisions ...
