Labor & Employment Law Blog

Many employers outsource some or all of their payroll and related tax duties to third party payroll service providers.  These related tax duties may include withholding, reporting, and paying over certain employment (i.e. FICA, Medicare, SDI) and income taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and California Employment Development Department (EDD).

On September 15, 2017, the 2017 California legislative session ended, with several employment-related bills being sent to the Governor’s desk.  The Governor has until October 15, 2017 to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature.  Below is a quick summary of key bills that may be signed and become effective in the upcoming year:

On May 16, 2017, the Court of Appeals held that a company that obtains workers from a temporary staffing agency can enforce the arbitration agreement entered into between the temporary workers and the staffing agency.  See Garcia v. Pexco, LLC, No. G052872, 2017 WL 1435788 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2017).

Two recent decisions by California courts concluded employees who signed pre-dispute arbitration agreements with their employers could not be compelled to arbitrate their individual PAGA (the Private Attorney’s General Act of 2004 [Labor Code section 2698, et seq.]) claims against their employer.

Recently, after years of litigation, the California Court of Appeal published its decision approving See’s Candy Shops, Inc.’s (“See’s”) rounding and grace-period policies.  (Silva v. See’s Candy Shops, Inc. (2016) 7 Cal. App. 5th 235).

The court previously approved See’s rounding policy in 2012, in See's Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court (2012) 210 Cal.App.4th 889, but left open the ...

On February 8, 2017, the Supreme Court announced it will schedule oral arguments in its review of class action waivers in the 2017 Supreme Court session, which starts in October.  In January, the Court announced it would review three cases involving whether class action waivers that are required as a condition of employment in individual employee arbitration agreements violate federal labor law.

In 2012, the ...

On January 13, the California Court of Appeal issued a decision in favor of an employee of San Diego Miramar College who was released for “job abandonment” while out on medical leave. The court reversed the trial court’s judgment in favor of the College, holding a reasonable fact-finder could conclude the College retaliated against the employee for taking medical leave protected under the California ...

On January 21, 2015, the California Court of Appeal held that the City of Santa Monica (the “City”) did not fail to reasonably accommodate an employee, Tony Nealy, where Nealy was unable to perform the essential functions of the job and there were no alternate positions for which Nealy was qualified.  Nealy v. City of Santa Monica, (California Ct App 02/13/2015).  The court also found that the City did not have ...

On September 2, 2014, a California appellate court upheld an order requiring a college math professor to undergo a “fitness for duty examination” (“FFD”) based on behavior that his colleagues considered erratic and threatening in nature.  The court also rebuffed the efforts of the professor’s attorneys to interject themselves into the workplace dispute by placing conditions on the FFD.  The ...

In Patterson v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC., the California Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether a franchisor, such as Domino’s Pizza, LLC., can be held vicariously liable for claims of alleged sexual harassment by an employee of a franchisee, such as an individually owned Domino’s Pizza store.  The court framed the issue as follows:  “Does a franchisor stand in an employment or agency relationship with the franchisee and its employees for purposes of holding it vicariously liable for workplace injuries allegedly inflicted by one employee of a franchisee while supervising another employee of the franchisee?”  The court held a franchisor is not vicariously liable for claims of alleged workplace torts by employees of a franchisee unless. . . .