Labor Code

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California’s City of Santa Monica’s City Council has adopted an ordinance that enacts minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements for covered employees as well as new regulations pertaining to service charges and surcharges. Ordinance Number 2509 became effective on February 25, 2016, although its provisions will not be implemented until July 1, 2016.

The City Council authorized the City Manager to establish a working group to review and recommend technical adjustments to the adopted Ordinance.

We discuss key provisions below.

Minimum Wage Rates for Non-Hotel Sector Employees

Employers with at least 26 covered employees shall pay no less than the following hourly wages:

  • July 1, 2016 – $10.50
  • July 1, 2017 – $12.00
  • July 1, 2018 – $13.25
  • July 1, 2019 – $14.25
  • July 1, 2020 – $15.00

Employers with up to 25 employees will have an additional year to satisfy each of these pay rates. Therefore, hourly pay increases for smaller employers will start on July 1, 2017, at $10.50 per hour, reaching $15.00 per hour by July 1, 2021.
Continue Reading Santa Monica, California, Joins Patchwork of Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Laws

Employers doing business in California have seen a barrage of class actions and representative claims for various alleged wage and hour Labor Code violations. Some cases are premised solely on “technical” wage statement violations, where the employer may not have even realized the practice was occurring or was unlawful.
Continue Reading Why You Should Take a Closer Look at California’s New Piece-Rate Legislation

An amendment to California’s Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”) affords an employer the right to cure certain wage statement violations before an employee may bring a civil suit against the employer.

This is a win for employers. The amendment, AB 1506, provides employers the right to cure a violation of failing to provide its employees with a wage statement containing the inclusive dates of the pay period and the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer, as required under California Labor Code section 226(a). The amendment, signed by Governor Jerry Brown on October 2, 2015, is effective immediately.
Continue Reading Representative PAGA Law Allows Curing of Certain Wage Statement Violations

Declining to enforce a representative action waiver contained in an arbitration agreement, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, has held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) does not preempt California’s “Iskanian rule,” which prohibits waiver of representative claims under the state Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (“PAGA”), Cal. Lab. Code § 2698 et seq. Sakkab v. Luxottica Retail North America, Inc., No. 13-55184 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2015).

The PAGA “authorizes an employee to bring an action for civil penalties on behalf of the state against his or her employer for Labor Code violations committed against the employee and fellow employees, with most of the proceeds of that litigation going to the state.” Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal.4th 348, 360 (2014). Thus, a PAGA claim is a type of government enforcement action where the representative employee acts as the state’s proxy.Continue Reading California Ban on Waiver of Representative PAGA Claims Not Barred by Federal Arbitration Act, Federal Court Holds

A sharply divided National Labor Relations Board has announced a new standard for determining joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (Aug. 27, 2015). One of the most significant decisions issued by the Board in recent years, it is likely to impact the labor relations and business relationships of many companies.
Continue Reading Labor Board Sets New Standard for Determining Joint Employer Status

Employers with operations in California – from established corporations to emerging and startup companies – face unique challenges. California law often sets the national trend with employment law developments predating changes across the country. Our biannual breakfast series consists of interactive seminars offered throughout the Golden State aimed at helping participants learn about the latest legal developments and explore ways they may avoid liability by developing preventive strategies. We encourage human resources executives and professionals, in-house counsel and chief executive officers to attend.
Continue Reading You Won’t Want to Miss This! The California Workplace Law Breakfast Series End of Year Update

Co-hosted by Juniper Networks and Jackson Lewis P.C., the Collaboratory Series offers interactive workshops designed to highlight “real life” compliance issues and solutions for employers. 2015 has been another year for groundbreaking new decisions and rules from the National Labor Relations Board. Not only did the “quickie election” rule go into effect on April 14th, but the Board has also continued to redefine workplace law in other significant ways. In this session, we will discuss the law, trends and recommendations for employer consideration.
Continue Reading Complimentary Silicon Valley Labor Seminar on September 9, 2015

Jackson Lewis Shareholder Punam Sarad will serve as a panelist at the Bay Area Employer 411: What You Need to Know About the New Laws on Equal Pay, Fair Scheduling and Slavery-Free Supply Chains Conference hosted by the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and American Association of University Women/San Francisco Branch. The panel will be followed by a roundtable discussion about the Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance and Retail Workers Bill of Rights.
Continue Reading Bay Area Employer 411: What You Need to Know About the New Laws on Equal Pay, Fair Scheduling and Slavery-Free Supply Chains

On July 15, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 202, which requires California-based minor or major league sport teams in certain sports to treat cheerleaders as employees, not independent contractors. AB 202 defined California-based sport team as either a minor- or major-league-level team in the sport of baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, or…

In the June 2014 Iskanian decision, the California Supreme Court carved out an exception to the general rule that class action waivers in arbitration agreements are valid, and concluded that the right to bring representative Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) claims cannot be waived through arbitration agreements. PAGA allows individual workers to pursue Labor Code violations against employers in a representative action on behalf of government authorities.
Continue Reading PAGA Waivers may be Enforceable in Federal Courts