California - General

Ok. Cal/OSHA has taken the OSHA ETS off the agenda for Thursday’s meeting. Too much uncertainty. As a reminder, today is the random lottery to determine which Court of Appeals will handle the consolidated lawsuits challenging the OSHA ETS. It’s going to be interesting…

On November 4, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission in the workplace. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) was planning to update and adopt new languag

Keeping in mind that the compliance date of the California Privacy Rights Act is not until January 1, 2023, what are steps employers can take now? Denver Shareholders Zoe Argento and Philip Gordon, also Co-Chairs of Littler’s Privacy Practice, discuss building your CPRA compliance team, data retenti

On November 30, 2021, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. (Pacific Time), CDF Partners Mark Spring and Nicole Legrottaglie will be presenting our annual complimentary “Year in Review” webinar that will cover 2021’s new laws, key judicial decisions, and important regulatory developments affecting California

The California legislature has passed and Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a number of bills that address wage and hour practices and other issues affecting California employers. All bills take effect January 1, 2022, unless otherwise specified.

On October 20, 2021, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the lead plaintiff challenging AB 51, filed a petition for rehearing en banc with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v.

As suggested by its previous motion , the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed a petition for rehearing en banc after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) did not preempt California’s ban on mandatory arbitration contracts, Assembly

There are many laws that provide for time off, paid or unpaid, and some provide protected leaves of absence, too, including CFRA, USERRA, FMLA, PFL, PDL, California Paid Sick Leave, Workers’ Compensation and more. Understanding and applying this matrix of laws is a challenge, particularly adding COV

The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fourth Appellate District, recently handed a potentially significant website accessibility win to the business community under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) when it upheld a jury verdict in Thurston v. Omni Hotels Mgmt. Corp. (Cal. Ct. App. Se

On September 30, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) No. 1578, which amends Government Code section 11425.20(a) to provide that administrative hearings shall be open to the public, including by live audio or video.

Philip Gordon and Zoe Argento, shareholders in Littler’s Denver office, are joined by Kwabena Appenteng, shareholder in Littler’s Chicago office, to discuss new vendor contracting issues related to the CPRA . Kwabena addresses both requirements and recommendations for provisions to be included in th

California employers may now distribute required posters and notices to employees via email. Senate Bill 657, which is effective on January 1, 2022, clarifies that employers do not need to send or show remote employees required employee postings.

The California Supreme Court issued several employment law decisions during the past year. We summarize below the most important of these rulings.

On October 7, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) No. 331 into law. SB 331 is known as the “Silenced No More Act.” It amends California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1001 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and imposes significant new restrictions o

In 2019, California adopted several laws that restricted “non-disclosure" provisions in employment-related agreements. Those laws, passed in the wake of the “me too” movement, limited non-disclosure provisions in settlement agreements for lawsuits and administrative agency charges involving allegati

On September 22, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 701 ( AB 701 ), another “first in the nation” law, this time taking aim at perceived health and safety issues applicable to certain warehouse workers. Effective January 1, 2022, the new law, codified in California

California is at it again – adopting a host of new labor and employment laws that will further regulate and complicate business operations in the Golden State. Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute has been tracking these bills as they worked their way through the legislature and been signed into law

Sean Paisan discusses a new law from the California Divison of Occupational Safety and Health imposing fines on employers for "egregious" violations of COVID-19 standards, including instances where three or more employees are hospitalized for illness, in "Workplace safety law expands Cal/OSHA reach,

To address the prevalent and ongoing practice of permitting employees to work from home, a new California law authorizes employers to provide required workplace notifications to their employees as attachments to emails. Senate Bill (SB) No. 657 was signed into law on July 16, 2021. While the new law

On September 10, 2021, the California Court of Appeal broadened the test for joint employment in California, lowering the bar for what constitutes sufficient control by business over its vendor’s employees’ wages and working conditions and opening these businesses up to potential liability.