The judgment against the defendant for $1,347,000 in Faigin v. Signature Group Holdings, Inc.
should be a good reminder for companies to have well drafted executive agreements. Faigin worked as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer for Fremont General, a parent corporation. Defendant had various subsidiary companies that Faigin also worked for during his employment.
New Cases
Health Care Reform and The Affordable Care Act – Webinar
It is time to start planning for how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare, will effect your business. Peterson Milaney Associates, will be hosting a webinar on the new law and what employers need to start planning for now. The webinar is taking place on Monday, December 3, at…
Can California Labor Code Provisions Apply To Non-resident Employees Working in California?
Given the increasing mobility of the workforce, the issue of which state’s laws apply to a traveling employee is becoming more and more common. In Sullivan v. Oracle Corp., the California Supreme Court held that California-based employers must pay non-resident employees working in California according to the California’s overtime laws. That means that a…
Proposed Bill Gives NLRB And OSHA Right To Review Emails And Other Electronic Information Without Search Warrant
There is concern about a bill making its way through the Senate that would drastically change individuals’ privacy interest in their internet communications and “cloud” information. The bill, named the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2011, originally started out as offering more protection to individuals, but after law enforcement expressed its concerns about…
NLRB Issues New Memo On Validity of Social Media Policies
In October 2012 the National Labor Relations Board issued an advice memorandum regarding whether an employer’s social media policy violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). This memorandum is of importance because the NLRB has issued findings recently that employer’s seemingly neutral social media policies violated employees’ rights under the NLRA. Section 7 of the…
Court Upholds Timekeeping Rounding Policies: See’s Candy Shops Inc. v. Superior Court
In See’s Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court the court addressed whether an employer’s policy of rounding employee’s time clock entries to the nearest tenth of an hour. See’s Candy’s policy rounded employees’ time entries either up or down to the nearest tenth of an hour in its Kronos time keeping system. For example, if…
Silicon Valley Companies Sued Over Agreements Not To Hire Competitor’s Employees
Were Silicon Valley companies artificially keeping wages lower by having an agreement not to
poach employees from competitors? This issue came to a head in 2010 when the Department of Justice settled an antitrust case with Adobe, Pixar, Google, Apple, Inuit, and Intel. The DOJ alleged that the companies had agreement not to poach each…
Post-Brinker Decision Upholds Denial Of Class Certification: Muldrow v. Surrex Solutions Corp.
In Muldrow v. Surrex Solutions Corp., the California Court of Appeal upheld a trial court’s determination that the plaintiffs could not maintain a class action for proposed meal period class given the holding by the California Supreme Court in Brinker v. Superior Court (click here for additional information on the Brinker ruling…
Does the Company or the Employee Own a Twitter Account?
Imagine you are an employer and your employee in charge of your social media accounts leaves, keeps the accounts, and begins using the accounts while working for a competitor. Conversely, imagine you are an employee, leave employment to work for a competitor and your former employer sues you for $350,000 because you refuse to stop…
Court Holds Employers May Chargeback Sales Representatives For Returns
In sales, it is usually the case when the sale is made, but the customer has a set period of time to return the product. This presents an issue for an employer who pays the sales representative a commission. The employer does not want to pay a commission on an item sold that may be…