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California

Court: Hip-hop on work PA can be harassment

06/12/2023
A federal appeals court has ruled that blasting “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music over a Nevada warehouse’s public address system “almost daily” for two years created a hostile work environment.

Your best practice for beating bias lawsuits: Keep accurate records of all HR decisions

03/16/2023
Here’s HR’s best employment-law bet: Assume every employee you fire will try to sue you. That means basing every termination decision on solid business-related reasons, documented in real time. Your good records will often be enough to get a lawsuit tossed out quickly.

Employers win California battle over mandatory arbitration

03/10/2023
Call it a victory for employers that use arbitration agreements to quickly resolve workplace disputes without lengthy court battles and potential runaway jury awards. A federal appeals court has overturned a California law prohibiting employers from requiring employees to sign arbitration agreements. The ruling could mean similar laws in other states may be invalidated, too.

Worker in alleged “slave ship” wants to litigate race bias suit

01/04/2023
A Black assembly line staffer at Tesla, Marcus, seeks to add more than 100 other workers to an existing lawsuit, calling the electric-car maker’s production floor in Fremont, Calif., a “hotbed for racist behavior.”

Court calls working beyond pay grade intolerable

12/15/2022
Generally, workers must be turned down for a job, demoted or fired before they can sue their employers and allege discrimination as the reason. But as with many things in life, there’s an exception—the concept of constructive discharge holds that if an employer makes the employee’s work life “intolerable,” that justifies quitting. The worker can then sue despite not having been fired.

Should California COVID safeguards be permanent?

11/29/2022
Many employers spoke of the burdens of the protections, especially the requirement to continue contact tracing and the failure to consider the decline in COVID-19 cases. The standard is also vague, they argue.

Netflix beats harassment claims—for now

11/22/2022
A California judge dismissed allegations of harassment and emotional distress against a supervisor at Netflix. The plaintiff, a former business and legal affairs director at the streaming service, sued for race and gender discrimination and wrongful termination, alleging a supervisor failed to stop a male subordinate’s racist and misogynistic comments.

Don’t make this $56.5 million mistake

11/15/2022
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office sued Instacart, alleging that its shoppers should be classified as employees rather than independent contractors.

Don’t round time! Every minute counts

11/08/2022
Home Depot’s practice of rounding hourly employees’ total daily hours to the nearest quarter hour rather than the actual time worked, as recorded by a timekeeping system, resulted in underpaying an employee.

California extends covid requirements until 2024

10/20/2022
California’s governor signed Assembly Bill 2693, which amends and extends covid-19 workplace notice requirements until Jan. 1, 2024. Are similar revisions coming to your state?