EdLawConnect Blog

Since the advent of the cellular phone camera, nearly every high school student is equipped to surreptitiously videotape his/her teacher.  While this practice is statutorily-prohibited, what happens when a student breaks the rule and the cellular phone video depicts an image that would subject the teacher to discipline?

To be clear, the Education Code expressly prohibits surreptitiously videotaping a ...

We are often asked by clients how to respond when an employee at work is suspected to be under the influence of an intoxicant or controlled substance. The protections that most public employees enjoy from drug and alcohol testing principally derive from the prohibitions against: (1) "unreasonable searches and seizures" and (2) "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Your response is partly determined ...

Complaints alleging violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) will be handled differently by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) beginning January 1, 2013.

On April 12, 2012, the California Supreme Court issued its long awaited decision in Brinker Restaurant Corporation v. Superior Court regarding an employer's duty to authorize and permit non-exempt employees to take rest periods, to provide meal periods to non-exempt employees, and the timing of each. The Brinker court held while employers "must afford employees uninterrupted half-hour periods in which they are relieved of any duty or employer control and are free to come and go as they please," employers are not required to "police" meal breaks. Further, the Brinker court clarified the amount of rest period time an employee is entitled to based on the length of his or her work day, and the timing of the rest period. The Court explained, "employers are subject to a duty to make a good faith effort to authorize and permit rest breaks in the middle of each work period, but may deviate from that preferred course where practical considerations render it unfeasible." Importantly, the Brinker court held an employer is liable for wages for working during the meal period if the employer "knew or should have known" that the employee was working through the meal period.

On March 1, 2012, outrage erupted and national headlines were created when James Hooker, a 41 year old teacher at a high school in Modesto, California, announced that he quit his job, left his wife and family, and moved in with an 18 year old student, Jordan Powers. Both student and teacher have maintained that, while they met when the student was 14, their relationship did not become physical until she turned 18 ...

The California Assembly is considering a bill, Assembly Bill 2039, that would amend Section 12945.2 of the Government Code relating to family and medical leave. Currently, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), like the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid ...

There has been a lot of buzz recently about whether employers can demand employees or prospective employees to provide passwords to their private social media accounts. The buzz was undoubtedly associated, in part, with a proposed amendment to the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2012, which was approved by the House of Representatives on March 27, 2012. The amendment would have ...

School district administrators aren’t used to “thanking” Sacramento too often, given the annual slew of additional mandates and reduced funding from the Legislature. When the “Rodda Act,” the set of laws that provides for collective bargaining by school district employees in California, was enacted in 1975, however, the Legislature provided a little known exemption from the normal ...

On February 15, 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a “notice of proposed rule making,” describing proposed revisions to regulations under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). These regulations are proposed primarily to implement recent amendments to the military leave provisions.

The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take job-protected, unpaid leave ...

As we reach the approximate midpoint of the academic year, we believe it is important for employers to look ahead to nonreelections and year-end performance evaluations of permanent employees.  We therefore remind our readers of important procedural considerations in the evaluation process, and also offer some substantive tips in preparing evaluation documents.