California Employment Legislation

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On October 8, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill No. 497, the “Equal Pay and Anti-Retaliation Protection Act.” The new law amends California Labor Code sections 98.6, 1102.5, and 1197.5 to create a “rebuttable presumption of retaliation” if an employee experiences an adverse employment action within 90 days of engaging in any protected activity covered by the specified sections. This new law, which will become effective on January 1, 2024, also entitles a prevailing plaintiff civil penalties for each violation.…

Continue Reading New California Law Makes It Easier for Employees to Establish Retaliation Claims for Alleged Labor Code Violations

On October 7, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 700 into law, amending the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). SB 700, effective January 1, 2024, expressly prohibits employers from requesting information from job applicants relating to their prior cannabis use.…

Continue Reading High Protections on Information Relating to Employees’ Cannabis Use

On September 30, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 553 into law, establishing a new written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (“WVPP”) requirement for nearly all California employers. The WVPP requirement, which becomes effective on July 1, 2024, is the first of its kind in the nation to apply to employers across industries. In connection with maintaining and implementing the WVPP, employers also must train employees on workplace violence hazards, maintain a violent incident log and other workplace violence-related records, and conduct periodic reviews of the WVPP. The law’s extensive requirements, which are detailed comprehensively below, will be enforced by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”).…

Continue Reading California Passes New Law Mandating Workplace Violence Prevention Plan for Employers

On October 4, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 616 into law, which amends the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 by increasing the number of paid sick days (or hours) employees are entitled to each year. The law, which will take effect on January 1, 2024, will increase paid sick leave for employees from three days (or 24 hours) to five days (or 40 hours), whichever is greater, within a 12-month period. The law will specifically amend Labor Code sections 245.5, 246, and 246.5.…

Continue Reading California Employers Must Provide Additional Paid Sick Leave in 2024

As we wrote about previously here, in October 2022, the Sixth District of the California Court of Appeal in Camp v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., 84 Cal.App.5th 638 (2022), ignored a decade of precedent and found Home Depot’s total time rounding for its non-exempt employees was unlawful. In so holding, the court held, “if an employer, as in this case, can capture and has captured the exact amount of time an employee has worked during a shift, the employer must pay the employee for ‘all the time’ worked.” The court rejected at least half a dozen prior appellate opinions and instead focused on carefully selected passages from the California Supreme Court’s holding in Troester v. Starbucks, 5 Cal.5th 829 (2018) and Donohue v. AMN, 11 Cal.5th 58 (2021). In Troester, the Supreme Court held the federal de minimis doctrine did not apply in California, and employees must be paid for all time worked, even during activities that occur regularly but take only a few minutes per day before clocking in (e.g., undergoing a bag check). In Donohue, the Supreme Court rejected time rounding for 30-minute meal periods, although it did not address whether rounding of clock punches for in and out times when shifts begin and end was improper. …

Continue Reading Home Depot Files Opening Brief in California Supreme Court Case Set to Determine Validity of Time Clock Rounding

The City of Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance will take effect on April 1, 2023. The Ordinance, which was unanimously passed by the Los Angeles City Council in November 2022, requires retail employers in the City of Los Angeles to provide employees at least 14 days’ advance notice of their work schedules and to compensate employees in the event of certain schedule changes. You can read our prior blog article on the Los Angeles Fair Work Week Ordinance here.…

Continue Reading UPDATED: The City of Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance Will Take Effect April 1, 2023

As we previously reported here last fall, California enacted a pay transparency law (SB 1162) requiring employers with 15 or more employees to disclose pay scales in job postings beginning January 1, 2023. The Labor Commissioner recently issued guidance in the form of FAQs to address some of the unanswered questions regarding the interpretation and enforcement of the California Equal Pay Act.…

Continue Reading California Labor Commissioner Issues FAQs Clarifying Pay Transparency Law

Los Angeles City retail employers may soon be subject to significant new employee scheduling requirements. On November 22, 2022, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed the Fair Work Week Ordinance (the “Ordinance”). The new Ordinance, set to become effective on April 1, 2023, will require retail employers in the City of Los Angeles to provide employees at least 14 days’ advance notice of their work schedules and to compensate employees in the event of certain schedule changes. The Ordinance is still pending approval by the Mayor.…

Continue Reading The City of Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance Requires Predictable Scheduling

The Bill

The Expansion of California Family Rights Act, AB 1041, was signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2022. AB 1041 expands the class of people for whom an employee may take leave to care for under the California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”) to include a “designated person.” AB 1041 also expands the term “family member” under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (“HWHFA”), which governs paid sick day leave, to include “designated person.”…

Continue Reading Who Is a “Designated Person”? Changes to California’s Medical Leave

In February 2022, California enacted Senate Bill (“SB”) 114, which created California Labor Code section 248.6 to provide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (“CSPSL”) to covered employees. CSPSL was due to expire on September 30, 2022. On September 29, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 152, which (1) extends CSPSL through December 31, 2022, (2) provides employers the ability to require an additional diagnostic test before employees use CSPSL in certain circumstances, and (3) creates a grant program to assist qualified small business and nonprofits with grants for costs incurred for CSPSL provided in 2022.…

Continue Reading California Immediately Expands COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Through 2022

Beginning January 1, 2024, and following the passage of Assembly Bill 2188, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) will add employee protections against discrimination based on off-the-job cannabis use with a few, limited exceptions. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2188 into law on September 18, 2022. AB 2188 focuses on employee impairment from cannabis use, which it correlates only to the psychoactive component of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and places new requirements on employer-required drug screening tests. AB 2188 is significant because it is the first time that California’s permissive cannabis-use laws have been incorporated into the employment realm. California employers should consider reviewing their job application process and any pre-employment drug screening protocols, as well as their policies and practices relating to drug screening in connection with hiring, discipline, and termination to ensure they will comply with the new law. …

Continue Reading California Expands Employees’ Right to Off-Duty Cannabis Use