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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.

Follow rules to set alternative workweek schedule

05/30/2018
California wage-and-hour law can be complicated. For example, California allows establishment of something call­­ed alternative workweek schedules. Employees have to approve an AWS by voting via a secret ballot.

Disabled employees entitled to return to work, but not someone else’s job

05/30/2018
Disabled employees seeking to return to work may be entitled to an open position for which they are qualified. But when is a position considered open?

Always consult attorney before terminating employee who filed whistleblower complaint

05/30/2018
Internally reporting illegal activity may amount to whistleblowing and may protect the worker from discharge, even if the employer has seemingly legitimate reasons for otherwise firing the worker. That’s one good reason to consult your attorney before terminating a worker who may be a whistleblower.

Tip pooling: What’s fair and reasonable?

05/30/2018
Under California Labor Code section 351, employers may pool tips and distribute them in a manner that is “fair and reasonable.” What that means in practice depends on the circumstances.

Prior salary can’t justify pay difference

05/30/2018
California employers beware: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a landmark Equal Pay Act decision that may require you to make immediate changes to how you set starting salaries.

Arbitration agreements only work if signed in advance

05/24/2018
Don’t have an arbitration agreement in place? Don’t expect to implement one after an employee has filed a class-action lawsuit.

Was that a lack of training or common sense?

05/24/2018
Employees discharged for unprofessional conduct sometimes try to blame their problems on a lack of training. They argue that they had no way of knowing that their transgressions were inappropriate. That won’t work if common sense would have told a reasonable person that their conduct was wrong.

3 questions about pregnancy leave in California

04/30/2018
What are California’s rules on pregnancy leave? … How should we handle pay while someone is out on pregnancy disability leave? … How to count pregnancy disability leave?

What to expect if BOFE investigators knock at your door

04/30/2018
The California Labor Commis­sioner’s Office has ramped up wage-and-hour compliance investigations by its Bureau of Field En­­forcement unit.

Trump nominates Gustafson to be EEOC’s top lawyer

04/30/2018
President Trump has nominated Wash­ington, D.C.-area attorney Sharon Fast Gustafson to be the new general counsel to the EEOC. The general coun­­sel is the commission’s top litigator.