On May 8, 2018, the court in Ibarra v. Wells Fargo Bank entered an order awarding Plaintiffs who filed a class action against the bank $97.2 million for rest break violations. The original complaint alleged various wage and hour violations, and after the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment, all but the rest
Happy New Year. I started the Friday’s Five articles in the summer of 2014, and the interest in the articles has been more than I expected. I appreciate everyone who has read them and provided comments and feedback. If you have any topics you would like me to address, please let me know. With that
It has been a few years that the California Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking ruling in Brinker Restaurant Group v. Superior Court. With the end of the year approaching and employers preparing for the new year and the new legal obligations that come with it, now is a good time for employers to audit meal
This Friday’s Five sets out five resources that are free for California employers that are published by the state of California. Employers need to understand that while these publications are made available by the state of California, the agencies publishing the resources are only expressing their opinion about the current status of the law, but
In speaking to a few groups of California employers this week, a common question kept coming up about what are the essential 
employment policies California employers must have? While there are more than five, this week’s Friday’s Five starts with what I consider to be critical policies that every California must have in place.
1.
This week, in Vaquero v. Stoneledge Furniture LLC, a California appellate court issued a decision explaining employer’s obigations to separately compensate employees paid on a commission basis for rest breaks.
Plaintiffs worked as sales associates for Stoneledge Furniture, LLC, a retail furniture company doing business in California as Ashley Furniture HomeStores. Stoneledge paid the
In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc., the California Supreme Court issued a ruling on employer’s obligations to permit employees to take “off-duty” rest periods. The Court’s ruling ends 2016 with a major ruling on issues surrounding rest periods under California law.
The plaintiffs worked as security guards for defendant ABM. The employer required
This week’s Friday’s Five covers five misconceptions about California employment law that can land employers in a lot of hot water:
The topic for the uneducated (or out of state) employer does seem trivial. However, with the penalty owed to employees of one hour of pay for each
Friday is here already? Today’s post is a review for many experienced operators in California, but surprisingly I’ve been getting a lot of questions about 10-minute rest breaks recently by a lot of employers. So I thought I would have a refresher post for today’s Friday’s Five about some requirements about 10-minute rest breaks under
Speaking with some clients, I sense their overwhelming confusion in setting up employment 
policies in California. While it can be a daunting task, I remind them that the key is to approach it in a systematic process, and once the system is in place, compliance can be very easy. While there are many issues employers