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California

The gig is up! New AB 5 law turns many contractors into employees

10/04/2019
Under the law, an app-based company such as Uber or Lyft must pay minimum wages and unemployment compensation to contractors if the company exerts control over how a worker performs the work or if their work is part of the company’s regular business.

Bay area bistro forks over more than $172k in overtime

10/04/2019
New Thai Bistro in Alameda County will pay 14 employees $172,862 after investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the restaurant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

TB or not TB: That is the question in Oakland

10/04/2019
Cooking Around the World, an Oakland after-school cooking camp, has settled charges it violated the ADA when it demoted an employee who tested positive for an inactive form of tuberculosis.

Ensure settlement agreement ends threat of litigation

10/04/2019
Sometimes, it makes sense to settle employment-related lawsuits before they go to court. But settling only make sense if the settlement agreement is drafted to ensure there is no possibility of future litigation.

You won in court! Congratulations! Don’t expect to have legal costs reimbursed

10/04/2019
Courts are sensitive to the deterrent effect saddling the losing employee with legal costs could have.

No proof of bias: Religious affiliation alone doesn’t disqualify arbitrator

10/04/2019
A former employee has lost an appeal of an arbitration case in which he alleged the arbitrator should have disclosed his religious affiliation.

RIF didn’t achieve business goals? OK to repost jobs that were previously cut

10/04/2019
If you can clearly explain why you decided to reopen positions that were eliminated earlier, courts are unlikely to conclude you intended to discriminate against those who were not retained during the earlier RIF.

Your website could trigger a bias lawsuit

10/04/2019
The California Supreme Court recently confronted the question of whether a customer has standing to sue over alleged discrimination based on a visit to the business’ website rather than its brick-and-mortar locations.

Requiring English not automatically biased

10/04/2019
For years, the EEOC has taken the position that rules requiring employees to speak only English at work are discriminatory unless the employer can justify the rule as a business necessity. But now a federal court has concluded that before making an employer justify the rule’s necessity, the affected worker has to show that the policy has a disparate impact on a protected group.

Cite poor performance to justify termination

09/13/2019
Smart employers always document poor performance with specific examples. That way, you have a ready defense for just about any surprise discrimination lawsuit.