News

NEW LAW IMPOSES NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS ON EMPLOYERS On September 17, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 685 which imposes upon employers the requirement to provide written notifications to employees within one business day of receiving notice of potential exposure to COVID-19. In addition, employers must submit a report to Cal-OSHA. The law takes effect on January… Continue Reading

This year, as in past years, the Governor has been presented numerous new pieces of employment-related legislation for signature which will have significant impact upon California employers.  Most of these new laws will take effect as of January 1, 2021. Below is a summary of some of the most important new laws. CFRA LEAVE BENEFITS EXPANDED One… Continue Reading

On Friday, September 11, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued revised FFCRA regulations that will be formally published on September 16. When the FFCRA was signed into law on March 18, 2020 it required employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide up to 80 hours of leave at full pay to employees who… Continue Reading

As we all know, AB5 was passed into law on January 1, 2020, which entirely changed the landscape relating to the classification of certain workers as independent contractors. Specifically it codified and expanded the “ABC” test, which had been adopted by the 2018 California Supreme Court decision in Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court. One… Continue Reading

On Friday August 28, 2019 Governor Newsom issued a Blueprint for a Safer Economy which provides a risk-based criteria on tightening and loosening COVID-19 permitted activities. The Blueprint is based on a 4 tier structure setting forth different restrictions for different industries. Every county in California is assigned to a tier based on its rate of new cases… Continue Reading

REMOTE LEARNING, CHILD CARE CLOSURES AND EMPLOYEE TIME OFF Managing work schedules of employees to accommodate their needs due to the closure of schools and/or child care facilities due to COVID-19 and/or for those employees whose children are home due to remote learning is a difficult issue. Employees may be entitled to paid time off under… Continue Reading

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR PUBLISHES ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE ON WAGE AND HOUR RULES,FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE AS WORK PLACES REOPEN On July 24, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor published additional guidance for workers and employers on how the protections and requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA),… Continue Reading

On July 24, 2020, the California Department of Public Health released its Employer Playbook For a Safe Reopening providing a summary of information, links and general guidance for California employers related to COVID-19 and safely re-opening business operations. The Playbook, which consists of 32 pages, contains links to state and local resources, provides checklists and… Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has been very busy recently. In the last COVID-19 update, we addressed the revised and updated FMLA forms published by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the DOL. The DOL has provided additional guidance and forms on various issues employers should be aware. The following information is provided courtesy of my esteemed… Continue Reading

Non-Supervisory Training Programs Available On-Line While we are all currently overwhelmed addressing workplace concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers must continue to deal with non-COVID-19 workplace concerns including staying compliant with the obligations and requirements imposed upon California employers. One of the non-COVID-19 obligations is to provide sexual harassment prevention training to ALL employees.  As… Continue Reading