Labor & Employment Law Blog

In a blow to employers, the California Supreme Court unanimously held that a trial court judge cannot strike employee representative claims under the Labor Code’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) on the basis that the claims are unwieldy or unmanageable.

On Friday, May 29, 2020, the California Department of Public Health approved Los Angeles County’s variance request to move further into Stage Two of the California Resiliency Roadmap, allowing Los Angeles County restaurants to provide in-person dining service and hair salons and barbershops to reopen.

On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, the Los Angeles County Health Officer issued an Order moving the County into Stage 2 of Governor Newsom’s 4 Stage California Pandemic Resilience Roadmap. The Order is effective immediately and until further notice within all cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, except for the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own public health officers and orders that businesses in those cities must comply with.  Long Beach and Pasadena released their own revised orders, which closely track the Los Angeles County Health Officer Order, and are respectively available here and here. 

On April 10, 2019, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a detailed breakdown of workplace discrimination charges the agency received in fiscal year 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018.  The enforcement and litigation statistics are available on the EEOC website.

On October 22, 2018, the California Court of Appeal followed the California Supreme Court’s guidance in Dynamex, and differentiated between a taxi driver’s Industrial Welfare Committee Wage Order claims, and non-Wage Order claims. (Garcia v. Border Transportation Group, LLC (D072521, Court of Appeal, 4th App. Dist. Div. 1).  In line with the Supreme Court’s decision, the Court of Appeal applied the ABC independent contractor test to Wage Order claims, while leaving other wage and hour claims for evaluation under the multi-factor Borello test.  The Wage Orders regulate basic working conditions for California employees, including minimum wage, meal breaks, and rest periods.