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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 Recent Entries: 331
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Binding Effect of PAGA Decisions Is An Alternative To Class Certification -- Arias v. Superior Court
Posted on June 30, 2009The California Supreme opinion in Arias v. Superior Court has created a potent new alternative to class actions for enforcing Labor Code provisions. The Supreme Court granted review to decide whether plaintiffs must obtain formal class certification in order to bring claims under two different statutes -- the Unfair Competition Law (the "UCL," Business and Professions Code section 17200, et seq...
Between A Rock and A Hard Place -- Ricci v. DeStefano Addresses the Conflict Between Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Theories
Posted on June 30, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano is very much in the tradition of the Court's affirmative action jurisprudence of the last 40 years. In other words, it is confusing and provides little or no practical guidance to real-world employers...
Arias v. Superior Court - Class Action Requirements Clarified By California Supreme Court
Posted on June 29, 2009In almost every employment law class action filed, the plaintiff alleges a cause of action under California's unfair competition law, found in California's Business & Professions Code section 17200. Likewise, plaintiffs' routinely allege causes of action under California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, found in Labor Code section 2698...
The Supreme Court Tweaks Burden of Proof for Age Discrimination -- Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc.
Posted on June 20, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. has been hailed by the news media and some commentators as effecting a significant change in the law which makes it "much harder" to prove age discrimination...
A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come? -- Government Mandated Paid Sick Leave Under The Healthy Families Act
Posted on June 12, 2009Federal legislation to require paid sick leave is currently working its way through Congress. As currently drafted House and Senate versions of the Healthy Families Act would require seven paid sick days per year for most worker. Passage is by no means certain but a number of thorny enforcement issues will clearly arise if the bill becomes law...
Incentive Awards for Class Representatives -- Rodriguez v. West Publishing Corporation
Posted on June 11, 2009Class settlement agreements typically provide that individuals serving as class representatives may recovery special monetary payments, known as "enhancements" or "service awards." In the recent decision of Rodriguez v...
Employment Ruling At Center Stage For Sotomayor Confirmation
Posted on June 02, 2009As judge for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2007, Judge Sotomayor affirmed a lower court's ruling that 17 white and two Hispanic firefighters were not discriminated against in violation of Title VII and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution...
Managers Who Provide Table Service May Share in Tip Pool -- Appellate Court Reverses Award Against Starbucks
Posted on June 02, 2009As we previously blogged, Starbucks was hammered last year with a class restitution award of $105 million in a fight over the ownership of the change dropped in its tip jars. The central issue was whether store managers who also served customers could share in the tips which were left for all servers...
UCL ClassAction Standards are Clarified By California Supreme Court -- In re Tobacco Cases II
Posted on May 25, 2009In re Tobacco Cases II, is the California Supreme Court's most recent attempt to clarify the requirements for bringing a class action under the of California Unfair Competition Law, Business and Professions Code section 17200 et seq. ('UCL'). While the case involved claims of deceptive advertising by the Tobacco Industry, the opinion is also extremely important for employment class actions – the majority of which are also brought under the UCL...
Supreme Court Upholds "Grandfathered" Seniority System -- AT&T v. Hulteen
Posted on May 19, 2009When Congress passed Title VII in 1964 it did not initially ban pregnancy discrimination. In fact, it was not until the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) in 1978 that Congress finally added pregnancy as an expressly protected status...
Watkins v. Wachovia Corporation - New Class Action Opinion On The Effects Of Releases In Severance Agreements And Individually Settling With Named Plaintiffs
Posted on April 20, 2009Plaintiffs Brown and Watkins brought a wage and hour class action against Wachovia seeking damages for unpaid overtime on behalf of all California sales assistants on the basis that they were misclassified as exempt employees or that Wachovia simply did not pay the hourly employees for overtime worked...
Unions Can Require Their Members to Arbitrate Claims For Violation of Individual Statutory Rights -- 14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett
Posted on April 16, 2009The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) has always encouraged unions and management to contract for an exclusive grievance and arbitration procedure to resolve claims for violation of their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs)...
The Perfect Storm
Posted on April 10, 2009Employers in California and across the nation are facing some of the most difficult times in almost 80 years on the employment and labor front. In addition to the bad economy, employers are struggling with the new regulations already put into place by the Obama administration, such as the newly enacted Ledbetter Fair Pay Act...
EEOC Found To Violate FSLA Overtime Law
Posted on March 31, 2009An arbitrator held that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act on a nationwide basis with its own employees. The issue arose from the EEOC's policy of providing "comp" time to employees instead of paying them overtime...
EEOC Found To Violate FLSA Overtime Law
Posted on March 31, 2009An arbitrator held that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act on a nationwide basis with its own employees. The issue arose from the EEOC's policy of providing "comp" time to employees instead of paying them overtime...
SEIU Picketed by Its Own Workers
Posted on March 30, 2009Times are apparently so hard these days that, according to a story by the Associated Press today, even the unions are experiencing labor unrest. Dozens of employees of the Service Employees International Union picketed their own union Friday over its decision to lay off about 75 workers...
Federal Service Contractors are Not Exempt from California Labor Code -- Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, Inc.
Posted on March 26, 2009Employers who provide services under contract to the federal government are required to pay minimum wages and benefits set by the Department of Labor pursuant to the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act of 1965 (the "SCA") (41 U.S...
Another Arbitration Agreement Containing A Class Action Waiver Found To Be Unenforceable
Posted on March 20, 2009[In the interest of full disclosure – my firm represented Western Pizza in this case. Because of this, we are expressing none of our own analysis about the Court's opinion, but are simply reporting the court's findings.] Octavio Sanchez works as a delivery driver for defendant...
Obama Administration Moves to Block Bonus Payments to AIG Employees
Posted on March 17, 2009According to an article this morning in the Miami Herald the Obama administration will be attempting to block bonus payments to AIG executives and traders. A number of other prominent politicians have also piled on with righteous indignation at the prospect of paying large bonuses to highly paid executives at a company that is, for all intents and purposes, nationalized...
Court Refuses to Enforce Class Arbitration Waiver -- Franco v. Athens Disposal Company, Inc.
Posted on March 13, 2009In Franco v. Athens Disposal Company, Inc. the Court refused to enforce a class action waiver in an arbitration agreement which the employer was attempting to use to thwart class claims for missed meal periods. The case vividly illustrates how attempting to enforce such an agreement will likely result in an early ruling on the desirability of class certification...
Bartenders May Participate in Mandatory Tip Pools Even If They Do Not Provide "Direct Table Service" -- Budrow v. Dave & Busters
Posted on March 03, 2009Employer Wins Class Action Trial on Independent Contractor Status of Messengers -- Cristler v. Express Messenger Service, Inc.
Posted on February 12, 2009In late 2002 Express Messenger required its drivers to sign contracts designating them to be independent contractors rather than employees. The drivers sued. Their lawsuit claimed that they remained "employees" under California law and that the change in their status therefore denied them overtime, expense reimbursement and other benefits required by law...
Labor Secretary In Trouble?
Posted on February 05, 2009The Washington Post reported today that the nomination of President Obama’s Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, may be in trouble. Apparently, Solis’ nomination was to be considered at a Senate hearing today, however, the hearing was canceled once a report surfaced that Solis’ husband recently paid $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business...
Obama's First Law Sends A Clear Message To Employers
Posted on January 29, 2009President Obama signed the Ledbetter bill into law today. The bill overturned the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, which held that employees must file a discrimination claim within six months after being discriminated against...
Richard Posner Offers Economic Analysis of Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on January 27, 2009The impending passage of the "Employee Free Choice Act" has received a great deal of publicity in recent months. The Act would essentially eliminate secret balloting in union representation elections and allow government arbitrators to impose contract terms when negotiations reach an impasse...
Can Employers Conduct Surveillance On Employees Taking FMLA Leave?
Posted on January 26, 2009I expect that many more employers will be asking their employment counsel if they can conduct surveillance on employees who they expect are lying about their health status given today’s economy and the new FMLA regulations. There have been a few courts that have addressed this issue...
Congress Vastly Expands Time to File Discrimination Lawsuits
Posted on January 26, 2009Since its inception, Title VII has created remedies for any "adverse employment actions" that are motivated by race, sex or other prohibited reasons. A string of Supreme Court cases from at least the early 1970's had always held that the statute of limitations for discrimination claims should begin to run from the date of a discriminatory decision was made, regardless of how long the effects of the discrimination might last...
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Employers must check references, criminal records, other background material.
Can a former employee use photographs of jobs completed whie working for me in marketing material for a new business?
There are several issues here
1. Sub contractor started up a compe...
I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
If only one of the parts of an agreement has signed a written contract, can an e-mail be considered an agreement?
No, an email is not considered a contract. At the most is can be considered a wr...
How can an employer defend themselves for firing an employee who contends the company exposed him to hazardardous atmospheres although medical testing has been negative?
You'll need to contact OSHA to determine your responsibility as far as the work ...
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Can a former employee use photographs of jobs completed whie working for me in marketing material for a new business?
There are several issues here
1. Sub contractor started up a compe...
I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
If only one of the parts of an agreement has signed a written contract, can an e-mail be considered an agreement?
No, an email is not considered a contract. At the most is can be considered a wr...
How can an employer defend themselves for firing an employee who contends the company exposed him to hazardardous atmospheres although medical testing has been negative?
You'll need to contact OSHA to determine your responsibility as far as the work ...
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