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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.

California appeals court upholds clock-in/clock-out rounding

10/03/2018
The decision reaffirms a 2016 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the subject and expands on the criteria used to determine whether a rounding policy is neutral in practice, and thus lawful.

Joint employers pay $300K to settle harassment complaints

10/03/2018
An Imperial County, California organic vegetable grower and its labor contractor have agreed to settle EEOC charges that a supervisor sexually harassed and retaliated against four women who worked on the farm.

Check layoff rationale for signs of hidden discrimination

10/03/2018
A layoff based on legitimate business reasons can still form the basis for a retaliation claim if the layoff decision was based on ulterior motives.

California Labor Code allows collective bargaining that waives some meal breaks

10/03/2018
When employees elect a union to represent them, they give it the power to negotiate away some worker rights already granted to them by law. That can include a statutory benefit such as meal breaks if the law authorizing the breaks allows for individual worker waivers. Here’s how that played out in a recent case.

If first disability accommodation doesn’t work, keep trying to find one that does

10/03/2018
The aim is to arrive at an accommodation that satisfies both the employer and the worker. But don’t think that once you have agreed on the accommodation, that’s the end of the matter.

Carefully consider duties and time spent performing them when classifying employees

10/03/2018
Exempt employees don’t qualify for overtime, of course. That makes it tempting to classify as many positions as possible as exempt. But if you get that wrong, you could lose big in court.

Document why you decided to hire candidate

10/03/2018
A simple truth: Any candidate who doesn’t get a job might sue, alleging some form of discrimination. It’s best to simply assume that, at some point, you will have to explain to a judge exactly why the applicant you picked was the best person for the job.

Arbitration agreement format details matter

10/03/2018
Do you prefer to resolve employment-related disputes through arbitration instead of the court system? Then it’s quite likely that you include an arbitration agreement in your employment application. However, if you don’t get the wording just right, you may not be able to force a case into arbitration.

Missed payrolls add up to FLSA violations in Riverside, Calif.

10/03/2018
A U.S. Department of Labor investigation found that Carnegie Schools Riverside, a private Christian school, failed to make several payrolls to teachers, substitute teachers, coaches, administrative aides and cafeteria workers.

Turning a deaf ear to insults: A $500,000 mistake

09/20/2018
Your managers probably know it’s unlawful to discriminate in hiring and firing based on a person’s age or disability. But they may not realize that same law makes it unlawful to verbally harass workers based on those protected characteristics.