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Labor & Employment Law

California Labor & Employment Defense Blog

Providing employers up-to-date information about California employment law, including new cases, legislation, and discussions.

Post Frequency: 2/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2011 at 13:18:53

Who is A "Joint Employer" in California -- Martinez v. Combs

Posted on May 29, 2010
In Martinez v. Combs, the California Supreme Court has provided some long overdue clarity to the thorny question of who may be held liable for unpaid wages as a "joint employer." The decision is largely an historical treatise tracing the development of California wage regulation since the Progressive Era...

U.S. Supreme Court Class Arbitration Ruling Creates Tension With California Law -- Stolt-Nielsen v. Animal Feeds Int'l Corp.

Posted on May 02, 2010
As we have previously posted, over the past few years arbitrators following U.S. and California Supreme Court precedent have consistently found that "silent" arbitration agreements must be interpreted to allow class-wide arbitrations...

En Banc Decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Reviews Class Certification Standards

Posted on April 29, 2010
The en banc decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart reviews the lower court decision to certify a monster class of 1.5 million women who claim they were systematically discriminated against by Wal-Mart's corporate culture and subjective decision making...

The Department of Labor Issues Its Very First "Administrator's Interpretation" -- Mortgage Loan Officers Are Entitled To Overtime

Posted on March 26, 2010
On March 24, the DOL issued Administrator's Interpretation No. 2010-1, which is a significant document for a number of reasons. First, this is the very first in a new breed of interpretative guidance which is apparently intended to replace the DOL's prior practice of issuing "opinion letters" responding to the specific facts and questions submitted by interested parties...

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Commuting in Company Vehicle May Be Compensable Under California Labor Code -- Rutti v. LoJack

Posted on March 02, 2010
The Ninth Circuit decision in Rutti v. LoJack highlights the sharp distinction between the federal definition of compensable "hours worked" and the more generous standard under the California Labor Code. Rutti was a technician who installed LoJack anti-theft units in customers' cars...

California Court Finds Sales Employees Cannot Meet Administrative Exemption -- Pellegrino v. Robert Half Int'l

Posted on March 01, 2010
Previously we blogged about the Second Circuit decision in which a class of loan officers were found to be entitled to federal overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act because their duties fell on the "production" side of the so-called "administrative/production dichotomy...

Is The Recession Making Jurors More Anti-Plaintiff?

Posted on February 28, 2010
According to a recent Los Angeles Time article tough economic times are taking their toll on California jurors. According to the article, prospective jurors are more insecure about their employment than ever before. As a result, they are less willing or able to lose wages or take time away from work in order to serve on any case lasting more than a day or two...

California Supreme Court Trims Back Attorney Fees For Plaintiffs Attorneys -- Chavez v. City of Los Angeles

Posted on February 27, 2010
Most employment law claims, including most claims for discrimination and unpaid wages, require the award of attorney fees to a "prevailing plaintiff." Indeed, it is very common for a Plaintiff to recover tens of thousands in damages at trial and yet be awarded hundreds of thousands of dollar to compensate his attorney for the time spent on the case...

Financial Service Workers May Be Glorified "Production Workers" Who Are Entitled to Overtime -- Davis v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Posted on November 24, 2009
Loan officers, analysts, and brokers of various financial products are generally considered to be well compensated and prestigious positions. As a result, these positions are often reflexively classified as exempt from overtime...

Vesting of Incentive Compensation -- Schachter v. Citigroup, Inc.

Posted on November 06, 2009
The California Labor Code is very strict in protecting an employee's right to be paid for all compensation that he earns. As we have repeatedly blogged in the past, it is often a thorny issue to determine exactly when these protections attach -- in other words, when has a mere hope or expectation of a reward matured into a fully vested proprty right that must be paid by the employer without further delay or reduction? The California Supreme Court recently shed a bit more light on this issue in Schachter v...

Ninth Circuit Authorizes a Practical "Alternative Workweek" Solution -- Parth v. Pomona Valley Hospital

Posted on October 26, 2009
In Parth v. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, the Ninth Circuit authorized employers and employees to exercise some flexibility in attempting to work around the overtime requirements of the FLSA. In Parth, a group of nurses was originally assigned to work almost exclusively in 8-hour shifts...

Employees Are Not Required to Exhaust Internal Expense Reimbursement Procedures Before Suing -- Stuart v. RadioShack

Posted on October 10, 2009
California employees have a right to be reimbursed for their work related expenses, such as business travel, equipment, materials, training, and even legal expenses. On the other hand, companies typically have their own deadlines, rules, special forms, and other procedural requirements which must be followed in order to request and receive reimbursement...

Dan Rather's Wrongful Termination Suit Against CBS is Dismissed Pursuant to "Pay or Play" Clause

Posted on October 05, 2009
Dan Rather was famously terminated following his 2004 "60 Minutes II" report which used forged documents to accuse George W. Bush of evading military service. And a New York State Appellate Court has just dismissed the last remnants of Rather's wrongful termination lawsuit against the network...

Employers Cannot Avoid Liability For Discrimination By Subcontracting Hiring Decisions -- Halpert v. Manhattan Apartments

Posted on September 29, 2009
In Halpert v. Manhattan Apartments, Inc. a job applicant sued after being told he was "too old" for a position. The prospective employer initially won summary judgment on the ground that it was not liable as the hiring decision was made by an outside contractor who was not its employee...

Is The NFL's Anti-Tampering Rule Legal Under California Law?

Posted on September 28, 2009
The San Francisco 49ers have recently filed a complaint with the NFL against the New York Jets for supposedly "tampering" with their unsigned draft pick, Michael Crabtree. The Jets deny the accusation, of course, but what is "tampering" anyway? Well, the best definition I have been able to find, is given by NFL spokesman Greg Aiello in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: The term tampering as used within the National Football League, refers to any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club or any attempt by a club to impermissibly induce a person to seek employment with that club or with the NFL...

Court holds independent contractor status of cab drivers not suitable for class action.

Posted on September 28, 2009
USA Cab owns a fleet of about 45 taxis that it leases to drivers, and it operates a taxi dispatch service. At issue in the case was whether USA Cab's classification of the drivers as independent contractors was proper. The Plaintiffs' brought a putative class action alleging that due to the misclassification, USA Cab failed to provide workers' compensation insurance, failed to pay minimum wages, improperly required drivers to pay security deposits and other fees, and denied them meal and rest breaks...

HR professionals note to employment lawyers: stop working off of fear

Posted on September 25, 2009
The HR blog Fistfull of Talent raises a concern I think a lot of HR professionals feel. See article 'Hey Employment Law ‘Experts', You're Killing My Profession.' Kris Dunn expresses the all too common sentiment that employment lawyers are not advising their clients – but are rather scaring them into inaction...

When Are Employers Liable for Their Workers' Traffic Accidents -- Jeewarat v. Warner Bros.

Posted on September 19, 2009
It is well settled that employers may be liable for the actions of their employees in the "course and scope" of their employment. It is also well settled that employers are not liable for an employee during his commuting time -- otherwise known as the "coming and going rule...

Federal Judge Rejects $33 million SEC Settlement with Bank of America over Excessive Bonuses

Posted on September 15, 2009
Bank on August 6, we blogged that the SEC's just-announced deal with BofA to settle claims of concealing unpaid executive bonuses was pretty lame. We pointed out two glaring problems with the settlement: i.e., that the $33 million settlement was "infinitesimal" next to the multi-billion dollar fraud being alleged and that "even more conceptually problematic" this amount was supposed to "be paid by the same shareholders who were the victims of the non-disclosure in the first place...

Is Cutting Employee Hours to Avoid Benefit Coverage Illegal Under ERISA?

Posted on September 13, 2009
Companies that offer health insurance or other employee benefits typically set some sort of minimum threshold for triggering coverage -- for example, being employed for more than 20 or 30 hours per week. ERISA is very clear in allowing employers almost unlimited discretion to write their benefit plans in order to exclude part-time employees (or any other category of worker) in this fashion...

HR professionals and companies turning to Twitter for hiring needs

Posted on September 09, 2009
The Wall St. Journal recently noted how mainstream Twitter is becoming in the workplace. The article notes that many employers are proactively using the service to recruit better qualified employees faster and cheaper. Companies such as Microsoft, Raytheon and MTV now list job openings on Twitter...

Social Norms and Market Norms -- Using Behavioral Economics in the Workplace

Posted on September 06, 2009
Employers, managers, and employees can learn a lot about their workplaces from Dan's Ariely's fascinating new book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. One of the insights gleaned from the empirical psychological studies that he reviews is that we all maintain two separate and distinct moral systems -- i...

DFEH Review Shows That Disability Discrimination is Most Common Complaint

Posted on September 03, 2009
As part of a review commemorating its 50th Anniversary the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has released an informative review of the DFEH's history and current activities. The Power Point presentation includes some interesting facts...

Ninth Circuit Clarifies When Travel and Commuting Time Must be Paid -- Rutti v. LoJack

Posted on August 22, 2009
In Rutti v. LoJack, the Ninth Circuit examined the issue of which employee activities must be counted as "hours worked" and which may be disregarded as non-compensable. In doing so, it touched upon most of the important issues raised in so-called "off-the-clock" cases...

Ninth Circuit Approves Whistleblower Claim by In-House Counsel

Posted on August 15, 2009
In Van Arsdale v. International Game Technology, the Ninth Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment against the retaliation claims of a husband and wife who worked together as in-house counsel and who claimed to have been wrongfully terminated for raising internal concerns about potential Sarbanes-Oxley violations...

Technology blurs work/life definition

Posted on August 11, 2009
On-call time The WSJ notes the increase of lawsuits pertaining to when employees need to be compensated for on-call time or for time checking electronic devises away from the workplace. As the article notes, there have been a fair share federal cases, but California employers have no doubt been at the tip of this arrow...

Bank of America pays $33 million in SEC Fines for Excess Bonuses

Posted on August 06, 2009
Employee bonuses continue to be a hot political issue. The most recent exhibit was the SEC's announcement on Monday that Bank of America would pay $33 million in fines for not telling its shareholders that Merill Lynch would be allowed to pay $5...

Ninth Circuit appeals court holds Wal-Mart cannot be held liable for foreign suppliers' labor violations

Posted on July 27, 2009
Plaintiffs in this case, Jane Doe v. Wal-Mart, were employees of suppliers to Wal-Mart who work in foreign countries. Their lawsuit alleged that Wal-Mart should be liable for the suppliers' labor code violations. The employees worked for companies who manufactured goods for Wal-Mart in countries such as China, Nicaragua, and Bangladesh...

Card Check is Officially Dead, But Has Been Replaced By Bill For Faster Union Elections

Posted on July 20, 2009
As recently as February, President Obama was telling union supporters in emphatic terms that "we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act [a/k/a "card check"]." According to the New York Times, however, the Democratic majority in the Senate has finally abandoned any attempt to replace secret ballots in union elections with a non-secret "card check" procedure...

Employer's Uniform Classification of Its Own Employees Does Not Justify Class Treatment -- Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Overtime Pay Litigation

Posted on July 13, 2009
In re Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Overtime Litigation clarifies the role played by an employer's use of uniform job classifications when deciding to certify an overtime class. The opinion arose from Wells Fargo's appeal of the District Court order certifying a class of Wells Fargo "home mortgage consultants" for the purpose of determining whether they had been internally misclassified as exempt from overtime...

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