Labor & Employment Law Blog

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, California passed the “Right to Recall” law, which requires employers in the building services and hospitality industries to offer laid-off employees an opportunity to be rehired before hiring a new employee to fill the position.  Now that most businesses and companies are ramping back up and returning to work, employers covered by the Right to Recall law must ensure compliance with California’s recall requirements or face steep penalties. 

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 Tuesday, May 26, 2020, the Health Officer of the County of San Diego issued an “Order of the Health Officer and Emergency Regulations.” The Order requires additional protections for the public, provides additional recreational activity opportunities, and provides increased protections for employees and customers/clients of essential and re-opened businesses by increasing the requirements for facial coverings, health checks, and temperature screening.

The counties of Fresno, Napa, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonoma, and Ventura are the latest to join the growing group of counties which have sought and received variances from the California Department of Public Health to proceed into California’s Advanced Stage 2 reopening.  The variances generally authorize restaurants to re-open for dining-in and retailers to re-open for in-store shopping across the eight counties.  A few of the counties’ Orders also permit additional types of businesses to reopen.

On Saturday, May 23, Orange County obtained approval from the State for its variance request to move further into Stage Two of the California Resiliency Roadmap, allowing Orange County restaurants to reopen for dine-in service and previously closed destination retailers to welcome customers back for in-store shopping, provided the businesses follow County and State guidelines for reopening, as explained below.

Last night, after submitting requests to the State for approval to move forward, San Diego County became the first highly-populated county^[1] to receive a variance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) which allows San Diego County to advance further forward through Stage 2 of the reopening plan.