Insight & Commentary on California Workplace Law Issues & Developments
On August 30, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 778, which amends Section 12950.1 of the California Government Code. SB 778 extends California employers’ obligation from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021, to comply with sexual harassment trainings as outlined under California Government Code section 12950.1.
Please recall, per Govt. Code section…
California employment law is changing once again. By January 1, 2020, an employer having five or more employees will be required to provide at least one hour of sexual harassment training to all of its employees, once every two years. The training will be required to start within six months of the employee’s assumption of…
Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law Assembly Bill 2338 which requires talent agencies licensed by the California Labor Commissioner to provide materials related to sexual harassment prevention, retaliation, among others, to its artists. Additionally, the bill requires that prior to receiving a permit to employ a minor in the entertainment industry, the minor’s parent…
California employers with at least five employees must provide sexual harassment prevention training and education to all supervisory employees and non-supervisory employees in California by January 1, 2020.
Since 2005, employers with at least 50 employees have been required to train and educate all personnel in supervisory positions in California in the prevention of sexual…
Several significant employment law bills relating to sexual harassment are pending before the California legislature which could significantly affect employer practices.
SB-1343 seeks to amend current sexual harassment prevention training for employers. Under current law, employers with 50 or more employees must provide sexual harassment training to supervisors within six months of the supervisor’s assumption…
Violence is a leading cause of workplace deaths in the last 15 years and causes 48 percent of worker deaths in the retail industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Protecting retail stores is particularly challenging because they are open, public, high-traffic spaces with cash on hand, sometimes late-night operations, and with high employer turnover and stress. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, 85 percent of retail industry workplace violence involved some sort of crime. The rest may occur because a customer targeted a store or employee, an employee attacked coworkers or the company, or domestic or gang violence followed an employee to work. Moreover, violence may not always mean physical violence. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration defines violence to include intimidating and threatening conduct, and California recently passing a law that targets “abusive” behavior.
Continue Reading Retailer’s Guide to Defending Against Workplace Violence
AB 2053 went into effect on January 1, 2015, thereby requiring that California employers with 50 or more employees provide training on the “prevention of abusive conduct” along with the sexual harassment training already required by law.
“Abusive conduct” is defined under California Government Code section 12950.1(g)(2) as the “conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interests.” For example, abusive conduct “may include repeated infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks, insults, and epithets, verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating, or the gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person’s work performance.” Notably, there is no requirement that the abusive conduct be tied to a protected characteristic.
Continue Reading AB 2053: Sexual Harassment Training Must Now Include the “Prevention of Abusive Conduct”
On December 21, 2011, a California appellate court made two important rulings regarding reporting time and split shift pay: First, non-exempt employees are not entitled to “reporting time pay” for attending scheduled meetings at work, even though no “usual” day’s work is performed, as long as the employee is paid for at least half of the …
