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 […]

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 […]

Section 2802 of the California Labor Code requires employers to reimburse their employees for any “necessary expenditures or losses” that they incur as a direct result of doing their job.[1] But what if an employee’s work-related activities do not actually generate any expense in addition to that which the employee would have normally incurred otherwise? For example, if an employee […]