New Law: Requesting Accommodation Is Protected Activity Under the FEHA In Rope v. Auto-Clor System of Washington, Inc. (2013) 220 Cal.App.4th 635 (discussed here), the plaintiff sued his former employer, alleging that it violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) by firing him after he requested leave from work to donate a kidney to…
Continue reading ›Los Angeles County Votes To Gradually Raise Minimum Wage To $15 By 2020 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in unincorporated areas of the county over the next five years. For a list of L.A county’s unincorporated areas, go here: http://ceo.lacounty.gov/forms/unincorp%20alpha%20web.pdf…
Continue reading ›Uber has long tried to play itself off as simply a middleman, just dispatching independent drivers to consumers through its app — and taking a big cut of their fare. Nothing but logistics, right? Not according to the California Labor Commission, who ruled today that the extensive control Uber has over its drivers makes them…
Continue reading ›On, Saturday, June 13, 2015, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a measure into law Saturday to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 an hour by 2020. The signing ceremony took place at Martin Luther King Jr. Park at 2 p.m. On the prior Wednesday, the L.A. City Council voted 12-1 in…
Continue reading ›LOS ANGELES — Three Los Angeles-area residents responsible for operating a network of four schools were arrested Wednesday on federal charges for allegedly helping hundreds of foreign nationals remain in the U.S. as foreign students, even though they never attended classes. The three defendants allegedly ran a “pay-to-stay” scheme through three schools in Koreatown –…
Continue reading ›Employers often pay their employees on a fixed weekly or monthly salary on the mistaken belief that it covers all overtime hours worked by their employees. However, starting in 2013, the law is clear that salaries do not cover overtime wages. And, all overtime wages will be calculated on the legal hourly rate based on…
Continue reading ›A.B. 2617, proposed by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and signed by Governor Brown on Sept. 30, bars people from being forced to waive civil rights protections as a condition of entering into a contract for the provision of goods or services, including the right to file a civil action with the attorney general, the…
Continue reading ›Early Saturday morning, the California Legislature voted to significantly expand working Californians’ access to paid time off for illness. Gov. Jerry Brown was sent AB 1522, which he applauded. AB 1522 enacts the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014. The Act requires most employers in the state to give workers at least three paid…
Continue reading ›One common way for an employer to avoid having to pay overtime wages and employment taxes is to misclassify an employee as an independent contractor. An independent contractor does not have the same rights and protections that are afforded to an employee. Thus, it is very tempting for an employer to classify its employees as…
Continue reading ›On June 12, 2014, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that an employee who was constructively discharged for complaining about sexual harassment can maintain a common law wrongful termination action, even if the employer has a workforce of fewer than five and is immune from most claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act…
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