State Employment Law Articles

In response to the dangerous levels of air quality last fall after the wildfires in Northern and Southern California, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has enacted an emergency regulation addressing hazardous wildfire smoke exposure. In addition, at its last advisory co

he City of Duluth, Minnesota’s Sick and Safe Time Ordinance takes effect on January 1, 2020. Duluth is the third Minnesota city (joining Minneapolis and St. Paul) to impose sick and safe time leave requirements on employers.

The California Assembly has passed a bill that would expand the California Family Rights Acts to apply to flight crew employees. Assembly Bill 1748 (AB 1748) has passed through the assembly, and is awaiting the signature of Governor Gavin Newsom.

On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit certified to the Supreme Court of California the question of whether that court’s landmark 2018 decision in Dynamex v. Superior Court should be applied retroactively. In May 2019, the Ninth Circuit, in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchis

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 5, and the new law will take effect January 2, 2020. As discussed in our September 13 Alert, AB 5 codifies the existing “ABC Test” that was set forth by the California Supreme Court last year in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Ang

The California Consumer Privacy Act takes effect January 1, 2020. Businesses within the scope of the CCPA are taking steps to prepare, including drafting notices to inform California consumers of their right to opt out of the sale of their personal information. However, California will not be the fi

New Maryland laws governing the workplace will take effect on October 1, 2019.

AB 1748, a California law affecting California Family Rights Act’s application to airline flight employees has been signed by the governor.

With the future of the EEOC’s pay data collection efforts unclear, California’s effort to legislate its own race- and sex-based pay data reporting requirements likewise has stalled, for now.

On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), a bill that will dramatically alter whether, and under what circumstances, businesses may classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Two recent developments may help clarify this expansive

For years now, state laws have required subject organizations to provide notification to affected data subjects and, in some instances, to state agencies, consumer reporting agencies, and the media, when they experience a “breach” of certain categories of information.

In ZB, N.A. v. Superior Court of San Diego County (Lawson),1 the California Supreme Court held that unpaid wages are not civil penalties under California Labor Code section 558 and are therefore outside the reach of California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). This ruling clarifies the scope o

The Ordinance largely incorporates the State of Minnesota’s wage theft legislation (Minnesota Wage Theft Laws). (For details of the Minnesota wage theft legislation, see our article, Minnesota Adds New Wage Payment and Recordkeeping Requirements; Criminalizes ‘Wage Theft.’) The Minneapolis law, howe

On Wednesday, September 17, 2019, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB 5), limiting when businesses can classify employees as independent contractors. The new law goes into effect on January 1, 2020. For further information, please click this link.

On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law sweeping legislation—Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5)—that will dramatically reshape the contours of California’s workforce and economy, and potentially reclassify two million independent contractors—roughly 10% of the state’s workforce

In OTO, L.L.C. v. Kho, the California Supreme Court refused to enforce an employee’s arbitration agreement on the basis that it was unconscionable. Unconscionability has long been a common-law defense to contract enforcement. What makes OTO v. Kho problematic for employers is the court’s weakening o

Friday, September 13, 2019, was a lucky day for employers. Just hours before California’s 2019 legislative session ended, the California Assembly approved a bill (A.B. 25) that, if enacted, would substantially narrow the application of the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to employers. Under

The California Consumer Privacy Act is almost here! The groundbreaking law takes effect January 1, 2020. Covered businesses and their service providers have already started preparing, as the CCPA continues to evolve since it was introduced. California’s legislative session ended on September 13th, w

Friday was the last day for California’s legislature to pass bills and present them to the Governor for signature or veto. The legislature passed a number of employment-related bills this session. A couple of these bills have already been signed into law, but most await approval or veto by Governor

Recently, the California Supreme Court invalidated a mandatory arbitration agreement in OTO, LLC v. Kho (August 29, 2019) finding the agreement was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. The case involved arbitration of a former employee’s wage claims. Under California law, employees ha