Labor & Employment Law Blog

On January 26, 2016, the Santa Monica City Council joined other California cities in enacting an ordinance that implements minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements that go beyond State requirements.

On February 17, 2016, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) issued first-of-its-kind guidance on transgender rights in the workplace.

The California Department of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) is reminding employers in the state that they are required to notify workers about the new law that mandates paid sick leave. [Notice to Employers]

The DIR notice reminds employers that all employers were required to post a notice about the new law in a conspicuous place at the work site by January 1, 2015.

Employers were also required to provide ...

On September 28, 2015, the Ninth Circuit ruled that an employee’s right to pursue representative claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) cannot be waived through employment arbitration agreements. In Sakkab v. Luxottica Retail North America, Inc., the court in a divided 2-1 panel decision, weighed in for the first time on the scope of federal arbitration law applied to representatives acting under PAGA and agreed with the California Supreme Court, resolving a split among federal district courts in California.

On July 16, 2015, Governor Brown approved an amendment to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) prohibiting an employer or other covered entity from retaliating, or otherwise discriminating, against a person for requesting accommodation of his or her disability or religious beliefs, regardless of whether the accommodation request was granted.

The legislation stems from the Court of ...

On August 7, 2015, California’s Labor Commissioner issued an Opinion Letter confirming earlier guidance that employees who regularly work 10 hour shifts must be given up to 30 hours of paid sick leave under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.

California’s landmark sick leave law requires employers allow their employees to use “24 hours or three days” of sick leave each year.  ...

On Tuesday, July 21, 2015, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to instruct County attorneys to draft a law incrementally raising the County minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2020.

The details of the new law are not yet known and the Board of Supervisors will not vote on the wage increase until later this year.  However, the County’s resolution indicates the minimum wage hike will mimic the Los ...

On July 6, 2015, the United States Department of Labor published proposed regulations that would substantially increase the minimum salary that must be paid to exempt employees under federal law to $50,440 or more.  The DOL published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register, opening a 60-day comment public comment period on the  proposed amendments to Fair Labor Standards Act ...

With eight days remaining before major provisions of California’s sick leave law become effective, the California Legislature continues to tinker with clean up legislation.  On June 22, 2015 the California Assembly amended and passed Assembly Bill 304 (Gonzalez) (“AB-304”), by a vote of 69-0.  AB-304 now goes to the California Senate for consideration.

As discussed during our recent Breakfast Briefings on the sick leave law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, we have been tracking various bills at the California Legislature regarding sick leave.  Following is the latest on each of these bills: