In 2019 California enacted Assembly Bill 51 (AB51) that would impose criminal sanctions on employers who required employees to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment. From there, this highly controversial law has followed a circuitous route.Continue Reading A Win for California Employers: Employers Can Require Their Employees to Sign Arbitration Agreements as a Condition of Employment
The California 2022 Trifecta of Paid Sick Leave Laws: Employers Beware
In the past two years, California lawmakers have focused their efforts on resolving the negative effects of COVID-19 and its variants, placing primary responsibility on employers. Several laws were recently enacted that impact employers in the context of workers’ compensation, workplace safety, and particularly, paid sick leave. California’s paid sick leave laws are daunting. The laws have become increasingly complex with unclear requirements. The following is a summary of the major paid sick leave laws including some of the compliance issues:
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New 2022 California Employment Laws: How Businesses Can Protect Themselves
COVID-19 has permanently changed the workplace we once knew. Employers needed to adapt to new legislation meant to deal with the unprecedented impact of the pandemic. Expansion of the California Family Rights Act, mandatory paid sick leave for COVID-related illness, extended workplace safety protections, and workers’ compensation coverage for employees based on the rebuttable presumption they contracted COVID-19 at the workplace were just some of the laws enacted to expand and enhance employee benefits in response to the pandemic.
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California Return to Work: Finally, New Revisions to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards
The California state rules, which became effective June 15, 2021 (California’s “reopening”), eliminate capacity restrictions and social distancing and also permit fully vaccinated individuals to stop wearing masks in most situations.
Continue Reading California Return to Work: Finally, New Revisions to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards
Is Wi-Fi Sickness a Disability? California Appellate Court Holds That It Is Under FEHA
Is Wi-Fi sickness a disability? The California Court of Appeal just said it is in Brown v. Los Angeles Unified School District (2d Dist., Div. Eight), Case No. B294240. In a case that tests the limits of California’s liberal pleading standard, the appellate court green-lighted a claim of a woman who asserted a disability of “electromagnetic hypersensitivity,” or, as the concurring justice put it, “Wi-Fi sickness.”
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California Employment Law Alert: New Employment Laws Effective On or Before January 1, 2021
The emergence of COVID-19 has changed the workplace as we once knew it. California employers need to be prepared for unprecedented compliance challenges in recent legislation related to the ongoing pandemic, expanding leave protections, wage and hour compliance risks, and much more. Employers will need to review and adapt their policies and procedures in order to keep up in the coming year with California’s ever-changing employment laws.
Continue Reading California Employment Law Alert: New Employment Laws Effective On or Before January 1, 2021