In July 2015, Governor Brown signed legislation designed to overturn the decision in Rope v. Auto-Chlor 
System of Washington Inc. The case involved an employee who was asking his employer for an accommodation to take a future leave of absence in order to donate a kidney to his sister. As discussed below, the case raises
Uber class action certified, five takeaways for California employers
This week, a federal court in northern California certified portions of a class action 
brought by Uber drivers who worked in California since 2009 (click here for the decision [PDF]). Over 160,000 drivers have worked for Uber in California during this time period, and while the case is making a lot of news,
What are the biggest threats facing restaurateurs in 2015 and beyond?
I was able to catch up with California Restaurant Association’s CEO, Jot Condie at the 2015 Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo. We discuss the threats facing restaurateurs and the steps the CRA is taking to represent its members.
Friday’s Five: Five recent employment law developments employers should heed
This Friday’s Five covers five employment law developments that occurred in August 2015 that will have an impact for employers in California.
1) NLRB ruling widens which companies may be considered “joint employers”
In a 3-2 decision, the NLRB ruled that Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. was a joint employer with a staffing agency, Leadpoint
Friday’s Five: When employers may be required to pay employees to “do nothing”
Even though employers allow employees to watch TV, surf the Internet, or even sleep, depending on the circumstances such on-call time, even if the employee is not doing any work, still may be required to be paid by the employer. It has been clear since the 1940’s that employers have the obligation to pay employees
Five employment related bills California employers must monitor
With summer upon us, the California legislature is busy working on bills that could impact employers. Here are five employment bills being considered by the state legislature that California employers should keep an eye on:
1. SB 3 – Increase in minimum wage and indexing to inflation
Currently, California minimum wage is set to increase
Labor Commissioner’s ruling against Uber widely misunderstood by media
Earlier this week Uber appealed a California Labor Commissioner ruling against it holding that a driver was misclassified as an independent contractor. In this video, I briefly discuss the ruling and the lesson it holds for employers.
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors can carry many damages and penalties. For example, Sections 226.8 and
Five things employers must understand about LinkedIn’s job reference lawsuit
Recently, the issue raised in Sweet v. LinkedIn is whether the Reference Searches functionality offered by LinkedIn is governed by the 
regulations set forth in the FCRA. The Reference Search feature allows users who pay a fee to search for references that have worked with any other LinkedIn member. The results list common employers and
Friday’s Five: Uber and Lyft class actions show the difficulties of classifying independent contractors in new “sharing economy”
Uber and Lyft have been sued in separate class action lawsuits in California by drivers challenging
the two companies’ classification of the drivers as independent contractors. The plaintiffs in the two cases argue that the drivers should be classified and paid as employees, which triggers many additional Labor Code provisions for the drivers than if
Personal cell phones at work: Five lessons employers should take away about expense reimbursement set forth in Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Services
Colin Cochran brought a putative class action against his employers, Schwan’s Home Service, on behalf of 1,500 customer service managers who were not reimbursed for expenses pertaining to the work-related use of their personal cell phones. He alleged causes of action for violation of Labor Code section 2802; unfair business practices under Business and Professions