California - Wage & Hour

Following Brinker and the growing number of issues and decisions in its wake, a recent California Court of Appeals decision is welcome news for employers faced with meal and rest break class actions. In an unpublished decision, Sutter Health Wage and Hour Cases, the California Court of Appeal, First

May 28 was the deadline for California bills to clear their house of origin this year, and many bills of interest – and concern – to California private sector employers moved to the other chamber. Here are some of the “live” bills to watch.

Covered San Francisco Bay Area employers without an already-existing and compliant commuter benefits plan have until September 30, 2014, to select at least one of four commuter benefit options, notify employees of how to take advantage of the benefits, and register with the Bay Area Commuter Benefit

Private sector employers in the City of San Francisco will have to comply with new “ban the box” legislation restricting questions about applicants’ criminal records on applications for employment and during job interviews.

On February 11, 2014, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed sweeping amendments to San Francisco Police Code, Article 49, and Administrative Code, Article 12 (“the amendments” or “the ordinances”) that significantly restrict the ability of covered employers to inquire into, and use, criminal

Yet another legislative body, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, has “banned the box,” the widely used criminal history check box on employment applications. The ordinance, which will become law no later than Thursday, February 13, 2014 unless the Mayor vetoes it, would make San Francisco the nin

The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) is taking aim at employers for wage theft. In the latest example of the Division’s aggressive stance, it claimed Little Lopez Corporation, a janitorial services provider, owed wages to 41 current and former employees and, following an inv

Announcing that “class-wide relief remains the preferred method of resolving wage and hour claims, even those in which the facts appear to present difficult issues of proof,” the California Court of Appeal reversed an order denying certification of a class of restaurant managers who claimed they wer

As common issues predominated regarding whether the employer had a policy of denying compensation for certain pre-shift work in violation of California’s wage and hour laws, denial of class certification is not appropriate, the California Court of Appeal has ruled, reversing the lower court. Jones e

Employees who alleged they remained in their jobs after the employer made oral promises of a bonus upon completion of the sale of the company, which bonus was never paid, had adequately pled claims for promissory fraud (concealment), breach of contract and promissory estoppel, the California Court o

Despite the effort of the California Supreme Court to set forth definitive guidelines on meal and rest period obligations in last year’s seminal Brinker Restaurant decision, employees continue to bring numerous class actions alleging their employers have a common policy or practice of unlawfully den

Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court made it clear that California employers do not have to police meal and rest periods, so it would seem they have a safe harbor so long as employees have the freedom to take meal and rest breaks, right? Not only that, Brinker cited (albeit in a footnote) the

Effective January 1, 2014, California will become the third state after New York and Hawaii to require overtime compensation for all nannies and other domestic work employees.

San Francisco recently adopted the “Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance,” which prohibits caregiver discrimination and gives employees a right to request “flexible” or “predictable working arrangements” to assist employees with caregiving responsibilities for children, family members with serious he

San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee (D) has signed an Ordinance allowing employees working in the City to request flexible work arrangements to care for a child, family member with a serious health condition, or parent over age 65 without retaliation. Employers must consider employees’ requests and mus

Effective January 1, 2014, private individuals employing domestic workers in California, such as childcare providers and caregivers, must pay such employees overtime at a rate of time-and-a-half for all hours worked in excess of nine in one day or more than 45 hours in one week. The new law will exp

After the tortuous appellate process that finally resulted in the seminal California Supreme Court Brinker Restaurant Corporation1 decision defining the legal duty to provide a meal period and authorize rest breaks, you might have thought the battle was over, at least for Brinker Restaurants. You wo

For the first time since 2006, California's Legislature passed legislation increasing the state's current minimum wage of $8 per hour. Governor Brown signed the bill on September 25, 2013.

California Governor Jerry Brown on September 25, 2013, signed into law a bill that increases the state’s hourly minimum wage rate from $8.00 an hour up to $10.00 an hour by January 1, 2016. The new law (AB 10) amends Section 1182.12 of the California Labor Code and does not automatically increase th

Security guards who worked 24-hour weekend shifts were not entitled to compensation for eight hours of sleep time, the California Court of Appeal has ruled. Mendiola v. CPS Security Solutions, Inc., No. B240519 (Cal. Ct. App. July 3, 2013). Reversing a preliminary injunction ordering the employer to