Labor & Employment Law Blog

Yesterday, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., signed Assembly Bill 36, which conforms California law to federal law to allow tax exclusions or deductions for employers that provide health care coverage to employee dependents who are under age 27.  The Legislative Counsel's Digest states:

AB 36, Perea. Income and employment taxes: federal conformity: Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. The ...

The Los Angeles Daily Journal, a leading legal newspaper, reports that claims of alleged disability discrimination and claims for alleged failure to reasonably accommodate persons with disabilities and/or medical conditions are being filed in record numbers as the job market in California continues to falter. The Daily Journal reports that "[t]he prolonged recession and high unemployment prompted ...

Not every cloud has a silver lining, but some do, and the California Court of Appeal's decision today in Thomas McGann v. United Parcel Service, Inc., contains a terrific silver lining for employers. Thomas McGann was employed by United Parcel Service, Inc., ("UPS") for a number of years and worked as an On Road Supervisor. UPS classified Mr. McGann as an exempt employee and therefore did not pay Mr. McGann premium pay (i.e., overtime pay) for hours worked in excess of eight hours in a workday.

As we previously reported here and here, two recent decisions of the California Court of Appeal hold an employee may seek Private Attorney General Act ("PAGA") penalties for alleged violations of an Industrial Welfare Commission ("IWC") wage order requirement that employers provide employees suitable seats in the workplace when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats. For example, in Bright v. 99¢ Only Stores (2010) 189 Cal.App.4th 1472, the court held civil penalties available under PAGA, consisting of $100 per each "aggrieved employee" per pay period for the first violation and $200 per "aggrieved" employee per pay period for each subsequent violation, could be recovered because no other penalties for violating the seating requirements were provided by law.

On February 17, 2011, the California Court of Appeal ordered published (and therefore citable) its previously unpublished (and therefore not citable) decision in Drake Price v. Starbucks Corporation, a decision that should prove helpful to employers defending against claims for allegedly non-compliant wage statements, which are nearly always included in wage and hour class action lawsuits.

Labor Code section 226.7 states that if an employer fails to "provide" an employee a meal period or a rest period in accordance with an applicable Industrial Welfare Commission wage order, "the employer shall pay the employee the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of compensation for each work day that the meal or rest period is not provided."

Today, in Kevin Tien v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, et al., the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's denial of class certification of the plaintiff's claims and held an employer's obligation to "provide" non-exempt employees all meal periods required by Labor Code section 512 and by the applicable Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order means the employer is required to make such meal ...

Relying on data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Daily Journal reports sexual harassment claims have generally declined over the last decade from 15,222 claims in 1999 to 11,717 claims in 2010 (a decline of approximately 23%).  However, in 2010, sexual harassment claims by men rose to an all-time high of approximately 16% of the sexual harassment claims filed.  The Daily Journal ...

On July 22, 2008, in Brinker v. Superior Court, the Court of Appeal held that while an employer is required to "provide" to non-exempt employees at least one an unpaid, duty-free meal period of at least 30 minutes each workday of more than 6 hours, the obligation to "provide" required meal  periods means to make the required meal periods available and not to ensure that employees take all required meal periods.  This was good news for employers and especially good news to numerous employers defending against claims of alleged meal period violations. 

In Travato v. Beckman Coulter, Inc., the California Court of Appeal issued a decision potentially helpful to employers defending claims of alleged harassment and/or alleged retaliation, holding that the plaintiff's claims were time barred because she failed to present them within one year of the last alleged bad act and holding there was no evidence to support application of the continuing violations doctrine, which, under some circumstances, can save claims that would otherwise be time-barred.