Publications

It may seem as though employers may choose to hire employees who lack criminal histories, particularly in jobs requiring honesty or good judgment. But the government has become increasingly hostile to that notion.  A growing number of federal, state, and local laws...

Social media has blurred the line between work and home lives.  People tell the world what they used to keep to themselves or share only with friends or family. Employees use Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and more to air opinions about managers, working conditions, and...

California lawmakers and regulators in recent years have provided specific direction to employers about how to prevent and correct workplace harassment. For example, in 2016, the California Fair Employment and Housing Council (“FEHC”) issued regulations addressing...

For how many consecutive days may an employer require an employee to work?  Given the maze that is California employment law, one might think the answer to that question was settled long ago.  But no. The California Supreme Court only recently deciphered the meaning...

Employers increasingly are relying on electronic signatures in personnel records and other documents relevant to employer-employee relationships. Both state and federal laws treat “electronic signatures” as valid as so-called wet signatures, but only when the...

California’s Labor Code and wage orders require employers to “authorize and permit” employees to take periodic, paid rest periods. These requirements equally apply to all employees, unless employees are designated “exempt” under the executive, administrative,...

The California Supreme Court recently issued a landmark decision, holding that a public employee’s written electronic communications via a personal account may be subject to a Public Records Act request. One of the interesting questions the decision raises relates to investigations of workplace misconduct: Can an investigator use a Public Records Act request to obtain communications made by public-sector witnesses on their personal devices? Subject to some significant limitations, it appears that the answer is “yes.”

When an employer does not pay an employee for work, the employer is liable for the unpaid wages. But a company’s owners, directors, officers, and managing agents may be personally liable for wage and hour violations as well. Lower-level managers and supervisors may also incur personal liability in some circumstances.

Since 2015, almost all California employers have been obligated by state law to provide paid sick leave to their employees. However, many local governments within the state also require employers to provide sick leave—and the requirements are not always the same as...

In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance addressing the use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions. At the time, only seven states had some restriction regulating how employers could use criminal history in employment decisions.

The simple matter of providing workers with periodic rest breaks can be more tricky than it appears. California courts addressed two significant employee rest break issues in 2016:  (1) timing and (2) what is sufficient “rest” to be a legally compliant break....