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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.

Lost acknowledgment won’t sink arbitration agreement

06/06/2017
A case will go to arbitration even though the employer couldn’t find a signed acknowledgment page showing an employee agreed to arbitrate disputes. Because the employer made it a standard practice to have applicants sign such acknowledgments, the court said the employee was bound by the agreement.

Carefully document how you decided to terminate

06/06/2017
The decision to fire an employee doesn’t usually happen overnight. It’s typically a gradual process. Be sure you can show exactly when and how you made the termination decision.

Boss is equally demanding on everyone? That’s no excuse for employee lawsuit

06/06/2017
Some supervisors are more demanding than others. That’s no reason to sue, as long as the boss heaps demands equally on everyone, regardless of protected characteristics.

9th Circuit: Equal Pay Act allows past pay as excuse for current pay differences

06/06/2017
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that employers are free to use past pay as the starting point for a compensation offer as long as they can justify the practice as having a legitimate business purpose. That’s true even if using past pay ends up perpetuating past pay discrimination.

Is that an FMLA need, or just chaos at home?

06/06/2017
Employees who want to take FMLA leave must let their employers know. They don’t have to specifically ask for FMLA leave, but they do have to provide enough information for the employer to understand that the worker or a family member suffers from a serious health condition. Merely describing a chaotic life full of difficult events isn’t enough.

Title alone doesn’t make someone a manager

06/06/2017
As far as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California’s wage-and-hour-laws are concerned, how you label a job is absolutely irrelevant to its genuine exempt/nonexempt status. Classification is based solely on the work the employee performs. Put simply, calling someone a manager doesn’t make him one.

Purged disciplinary record doesn’t mean it can’t be considered in future litigation

05/16/2017
Acourt considering whether an employee suffered an adverse employment action has rejected the notion that reinstating an employee and expunging his record somehow makes his earlier discharge irrelevant.

Can we require seven straight days of work in California?

04/24/2017
Q. Tax season is very busy at our accounting firm. Can I schedule employees to work every day of the week during the spring?

How do we comply with California’s human trafficking notice law?

04/24/2017
Q. I own a truck stop. Do I have notice-posting obligations regarding human trafficking under state law? If so, how do I comply?

Supreme Court rules on acting capacity of government officials

04/24/2017
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that individuals awaiting confirmation to fill vacant federal positions cannot begin assuming those duties while their confirmation is pending.