SUTTON | HAGUE

Notice to Employees: The Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 established several new employee protections. The Act created Labor Code section 2810.5 which requires most employers to provide written notice to employees of their rate(s) of pay, any allowances, the regular payday, and the name and contact information of the employer and the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. According to […]

NLRB Holds Workers Have Statutory Right to Use Employer’s E-Mail System to Organize Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) held that workers have a statutory right to use their work e-mail to communicate about union organization, wages, working conditions, and other concerted activities during non-working time. The new ruling, Purple Communications, Inc. (361 NLRB No. 126), overturns the […]

Federal Law Does Not Require Payment for “Postliminary” Activities Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court recently determined the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) does not require employers to pay workers for time spent going through security screenings as they leave work. Plaintiffs alleged that they were required to go through the security checks each day after they […]

Featuring Guest Speaker April Watts – Senior Investigator, AT&T Corporation Active Shooter Response: Is your place of employment prepared in the event of an active shooter? An employer’s failure to address the threat of an active shooter in the workplace can be an Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSHA”) violation under the General Duty Clause [Section 5(a)(1)]. It could also […]

Children’s Hospital Case: A Fresno County jury recently awarded $1,035,050 to a former employee of Children’s Hospital who was fired after failing a post-accident drug test. The Plaintiff was a Children’s Hospital employee of 18 ½ years who worked as a security guard. He was awarded almost $400,000 in economic loss and $650,000 for emotional distress. Immediately after an on-the-job […]

Now is the time of year that we recommend employers review and update their handbooks for compliance with California’s new laws and regulations. While employers often struggle with drafting and implementing handbooks, once a handbook is in place it is relatively inexpensive to annually update. We cannot stress enough how important handbooks are to employer defenses against employee lawsuits—especially class […]

Following a national trend in which courts and government agencies are more closely scrutinizing widespread use by employers of independent contractor relationships, the Nevada Supreme Court in a decision announced on October 30, 2014 has now expressly adopted the “economic realities” test—typically used by federal courts in the context of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)—for determining whether a worker […]

In order to qualify for FMLA leave, an employee must have worked for a minimum of 1250 hours and for a period of at least twelve months. When calculating whether an employee has met the minimum time threshold, an employer must include any time worked as a temporary employee. The relevant Federal Regulation states that “(w)here the employee performs work […]

On September 28, 2014, California Governor Brown signed into law Section 2810.3 of the Labor Code which effective January 1, 2015, creates new risk for Employers who use Labor Contractors including Temporary Employment Agencies. Under the new law, Employers “shall share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for all workers supplied by that labor contractor” […]

On September 10, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014. This Act entitles employees to paid sick days for certain purposes. Employers must be in compliance with the Act no later than July 1, 2015. The Act states an employee must receive the following rights: One hour of sick time for […]