Photo of Cepideh Roufougar

Cepideh Roufougar is a Principal in the San Francisco, California, office of Jackson Lewis P.C.

Ms. Roufougar is Co-Leader of the California Advice and Counsel Resource Group. She advises and counsels management in all areas of labor and employment law, with a focus on identifying practical solutions to help ensure compliance with state and federal law. Ms. Roufougar positions herself as a strategic partner when providing advice and counsel about litigation avoidance, employee management issues, implementing disciplinary actions, and collective bargaining issues. Her ability to see the big picture clearly and understand her client’s businesses in emotionally charged and highly complex disputes has helped her clients financially and prevented litigation. Her clients rely on her to guide them through both short-term and long-term planning to achieve their unique goals and strategies.

Ms. Roufougar is an experienced trainer and presents seminars on a wide range of subjects, including: leave management and reasonable accommodations; preventing discrimination, harassment and retaliation; implementing and sustaining disciplinary actions; conducting defensible workplace investigations; first-line supervisor trainings; performance management/evaluations; and wage and hour issues.

Ms. Roufougar has been successful in helping her clients prevail in numerous arbitrations and administrative appeals. She has extensive experience representing employers in labor and employment disputes. She has defended employers in employment litigation matters, including claims alleging violations of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, FLSA collective actions, and claims of harassment and discrimination. Ms. Roufougar also conducts complex workplace investigations.

Before joining Jackson Lewis, Ms. Roufougar practiced at a well-regarded local labor and employment firm and served as in-house counsel for a local public agency.

In December 2022, the City of Berkeley passed the Fair Workweek Employment Standards Ordinance. The ordinance will become operative on January 12, 2024.

The Berkeley ordinance is similar to the City of Los Angeles’s Fair Work Week Ordinance which took effect April 1, 2023,and other local ordinances regarding how employees are scheduled

Beginning January 1, 2023, employees throughout California will be able to use sick leave or take leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to care for a “designated person.”  Under Assembly Bill (AB) 1041, a designated person is defined as any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is equivalent

California has extended COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) through December 31, 2022. On September 29, 2022, California’s Governor signed Assembly Bill (AB) 152 which amends the existing SPSL law and provides for state grants to certain employers.  

Changes to Supplemental Paid Sick Leave

The previous version of SPSL was passed in February 2022

While many employers are concerned with complying with the recently passed statewide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave, employers should also be aware of the interactions between regular paid sick leave and COVID-19 related absences. As such, employers are well-served to stay current on the latest updates for San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

The

On February 9, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 114 which resurrects COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) for 2022.

The following are answers that employers need to their questions regarding the latest edition of California SPSL.

When does SPSL become effective?

SPSL becomes effective February 19, 2022, 10 days after enactment.

 In late January, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he and the legislature had reached an agreement on a framework to revive COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (SPSL), which expired in September 2021. However, there was no bill and only speculation on what coverage would look like.

On February 2, 2022, Assembly Bill 84

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2022.

Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD. The 2022 rates are as follows:

“Employee Contribution Rate” 1.10%
“Taxable Wage Ceiling” (per employee per year)

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the agency charged with administering California’s employment discrimination statute and regulations, has updated its COVID-19 guidance for employers. The updates cover many issues that employers had been struggling with during the pandemic, including:

  • COVID-19 Inquiries and Protective Equipment
  • Employees with COVID-19 Symptoms or Infection
  • Job-Protected Leave

In 2020, employers with employees in California were inundated with new compliance requirements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It seemed that another local government or the state passed a COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave requirement nearly every month.  These supplemental sick leave benefits applied to employees who were not covered by the federal Families