On October 2, 2015, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill No. 1506, amending several provisions of California’s Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”). AB 1506 was passed to “provide an employer with the right to cure” certain PAGA violations. It was passed as an “urgency statute” which means that it took effect immediately. While employers should welcome any possibility of […]

On July 28, 2015, we prepared a blog post about the California Supreme Court’s request for guidance from the Labor Commissioner regarding the requirement that California employers provide “suitable seats” to employees “when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats.” This is an important issue because violations of wage order requirements to provide suitable seating will […]

By Charity Felts on October 19, 2015 On October 9, 2015, Carson City District Judge James Wilson issued an order staying his August 12, 2015 decision in Hancock v. State of Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner.  In the August 12 decision, the court held that employers must pay the top tier of the state minimum wage (currently $8.25) unless […]

Earlier this week the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or “DLSE” posted an updated FAQ document to address changes to California’s Paid Sick Leave (“PSL”) law. The changes to the law – which became effective in July 2015 shortly after the original law went into effect – were discussed in a prior SHLC Blog Post, and can be found here: https://suttonhague.com/july-13-2015-governor-signs-bill-amending-california-paid-sick-leave-law/. […]

Background In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011). In that case, the Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires states to enforce arbitration agreements and class action waivers in consumer contracts. Prior to Concepcion, many states, including California, had developed a practice of invalidating […]

AB 1513 Requires Separate Compensation of Breaks and Nonproductive Time for Piece-Rate Workers On October 10, 2015, Governor Brown signed AB1513, which expresses statutory requirements for piece-rate compensation and provides an affirmative defense for employers facing lawsuits based on wage and hour violations for piece-rate workers. In 2013, two California Courts of Appeal held that the California requirement that “all […]

In a unanimous decision on September 24, 2015, the Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that federal law and U.S Supreme Court precedent broadly mandate the enforcement of arbitration agreements and class action waivers in employment contracts. Tallman v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., 131 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 71 (Sept. 24, 2015). With this decision, the Nevada high court has made […]

On August 14, 2015 a Nevada District Court (Carson City) held that employers must pay the top tier of the state minimum wage (currently $8.25) unless an employee actually accepts the health insurance offered by the employer and, further, that employers may not consider tips or gratuities as employee income in determining whether or not the employer-provided health insurance is […]

On August 27, 2015, in a highly anticipated and controversial decision, the National Labor Relations Board announced its standard for determining whether companies that utilize contract labor are “joint employers” with the duty to negotiate with their contract workers’ labor unions. The contractor, Browning-Ferris Industries of California (BFI), partially staffed its recycling plants with workers provided under a contract with […]

On July 22, 2015, the California Supreme Court asked the California Labor Commissioner’s Office for guidance on how to interpret the sections of the Industrial Welfare Commission Orders (“Wage Orders”) requiring employers to provide all working employees with suitable seats when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats.  The Court requested that the Labor Commissioner provide […]