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California

No records, no mercy: Failure to track hours spikes damages

07/17/2015
Taqueria Papa Chano’s will pay $36,000 in back pay and overtime to 11 workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).

Coach wins $4M verdict after being fired for reporting hazing

07/17/2015
When the high school football coach at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School in Vallejo, California learned that some of his players were hazing underclassmen, he reported it to his superiors. The high school investigated and expelled five students. It also fired the coach who reported the hazing. He sued the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento for retaliation.

Daily pay? DOL stops effort to pad Thai eatery’s profits

07/17/2015
Employees at the Aura Thai restaurant in Long Beach, California will no longer be paid flat daily rates for their work. The practice certainly didn’t curry favor with U.S. Department of Labor investigators.

Court: Employee who agrees to arbitration must stick to it

07/17/2015
The Court of Appeal of California has reversed a lower court order denying arbitration and ordered the case into arbitration instead.

No free attorney for employment-related claims

07/17/2015
Here’s good news for employers facing litigants acting as their own attorneys. The Court of Appeal of California has concluded that low-income ex-employees are not entitled to free counsel under the Shriver Act, which calls for legal counsel to “represent low-income parties in civil matters involving critical issues affecting basic human needs.”

Litigious workers can’t force you to quickly disclose co-workers’ names, addresses

07/17/2015
Here’s a bit of positive news on the litigation front: An employee who is in the very first stages of litigation can’t demand the court force his employer to provide a list of names and addresses for all its employees. Instead, the employee has to first provide some proof of his own, individual claim before he can invade other workers’ privacy.

Public employee fails to raise bias claim in civil service hearing? He loses right to sue

07/17/2015
Some public employees in civil service positions may challenge their discharge through the civil service system. But doing so does have its dangers.

‘My boss is stressing me out!’ That’s not a disability requiring accommodation

07/17/2015
Some supervisors may be tougher than others and some employees may not get along with a particular supervisor. It may be a matter of workplace philosophy or even personality conflict. And the employee may genuinely be so stressed and anxious that she needs medical or psychological treatment. But that does not mean that she can demand transfer to a different supervisor as a reasonable accommodation, a California court has ruled.

When must workers’ comp pay for overdose?

07/17/2015
If an employee dies of an accidental prescription drug overdose, you’d think it would be hard for the family to claim workers’ compensation death benefits. But as the California Supreme Court shows, if an employee can claim the injury was work-related, an overdose on the resulting medications could trigger a workers’ comp claim.

Worker going on leave? React with poker face

07/17/2015
It may be natural for supervisors to be upset when one of their key employees goes out on workers’ compensation or FMLA leave, but make sure managers know not to lash out.