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California

Employment Lawyer Network:
California

Joseph L. Beachboard (Editor)

California Employment Law

Joe.Beachboard@OgletreeDeakins.com
(213) 239-9800

Click for Full Bio

Joseph L. Beachboard is a nationally recognized expert on employment law issues who speaks regularly at SHRM and other HR events. He also is a regular contributor to several national and California publications. In 2000, Mr. Beachboard sold The Labor Letters, Inc., a publisher of monthly employment law journals that he founded to advise human resource professionals. He is a founding member and executive director of the Management Employment Law Roundtable, a national, invitation only, organization of management labor and employment lawyers.

Open accommodations: Sonoma settles agoraphobia case

11/01/2007

In a case filed by a 24-year human services department employee who was diagnosed with panic disorder and agoraphobia, Sonoma County agreed to settle a claim that the county failed to accommodate his disability …

Report finds state job growth on far ends of the spectrum

11/01/2007

A report published by the nonprofit California Budget Project has found that job growth in California was considerably concentrated at the highest and lowest ends of the earnings range. According to the report, A Generation of Widening Inequality, which was issued on Aug. 23, the gap between the two ends has widened in the past decade and will continue to do so in the coming years …

Want productive employees? Let them have windows

11/01/2007

Employees are more productive if they have windows in their work areas, according to a recent study. That’s one reason the new SAP labs in Palo Alto have incorporated lots of windows. Does it really work? …

EEOC charges LAFD with discrimination—Again

11/01/2007

The EEOC has brought new charges against the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), charging it with subjecting black and female firefighters to a “pattern and practice” of discrimination, harassment and retaliation. It’s not the first time the department has been under fire …

Federal judge decertifies FedEx Kinko’s FLSA class

11/01/2007

Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has decertified a class action in an overtime suit involving FedEx Kinko’s managers. According to Armstrong, the 490 “center managers” in California were executive employees and therefore exempt from overtime pay under California law in spite of the fact that they reported to other FedEx Kinko officials …

California Supreme Court issues key class-Action ruling

11/01/2007

The California Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited decision in the case of Gentry v. Superior Court, deciding whether class-action waivers in employment arbitration agreements are legally binding. In a case of good news/bad news for employers, the court didn’t say that all arbitration agreements, or even all class-action waivers, were invalid—just the poorly drafted ones …

Timing on final paychecks

11/01/2007

Q. When is an employer required to give a worker his final paycheck? …

Temp agency employees and the FMLA

11/01/2007

Q. Must an employer using the services of a temporary agency comply with the FMLA for its temporary or leased employees? …

The marijuana exception to queries about criminal convictions

11/01/2007

Q. I know that an employer cannot ask a job applicant about arrests. Are there any limitations on my right to inquire about convictions? …

Should you encourage job candidates to reject other job offers?

11/01/2007

Q. Our company recently offered a job to a highly skilled software designer. Upon offering the worker a position, she informed us that she had accepted a similar position with one of our competitors. However, she told us that she would rather take our offer. What should we do? …