Welcome to Friday’s 5, a series of posts each Friday of lists of five items in various aspect of California employment law. I hope to keep it informative and interesting, and provide a checklist of sorts for California employers to review various practices and policies. Starting off, here is a list of five items not
overtime
Use of Ships To Skirt California Laws?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting about the plans of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who would like to anchor a ship 12 miles off the San Francisco coast in order to skirt U.S. Immigration laws. They project that the ships could hold 1,000 people at a cost for a room roughly equivalent (if not cheaper) to an…
California Supreme Court Holds Nonresident Employees Entitled to California Overtime – Sullivan, et. al. v. Oracle Corporation.
In Sullivan, et. al. v. Oracle Corporation, the California Supreme Court ruled on whether California’s overtime laws apply to out-of-state residents who perform work in California. The Court held that California’s interests in protecting all workers who perform work within the state are sufficient enough to require that California based employers must pay all…
Governor Vetoes Bill Giving Farmworkers Greater Overtime
Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB1121, a bill that would have given farm workers overtime when they work over eight hours in one day or over forty hours in one week. Currently, California farm workers earn overtime for all hours over 10 hours in one day and 60 hours in one week. Federal law, by…
Dept of Labor: Mortgage Loan Officers Do Not Meet Administrative Exemption
The Department of Labor issued its first “interpretation” letter (a change in policy by the DOL that replaces its opinion letters previously issued) by examining whether or not mortgage loan officers meet the administrative exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The DOL concluded that mortgage loan officer do not meet the exemption, and…
Recruiters for temporary staffing company must be paid overtime
The case Pellegrino v. Robert Half International, Inc. (RHI) was brought by recruiters alleging that RHI failed to comply with Labor Code provisions pertaining to overtime compensation, commissions, meal periods, itemized wage statements, and unfair competition (under Business and Professions Code section 17200).
As defenses, RHI argued that Plaintiffs’ claims were barred because they all…
Rules To Avoid Paying Overtime For “Makeup Time”
As difficult as it is to comply with California’s daily overtime rules, it is easy to forget the one form of flexibility provided to employers — makeup time. This provision allows employers to avoid paying overtime when employees want to take off an equivalent amount of time during the same work week. There are, however…