The Los Angeles Superior Court has bestowed some remarkable gifts upon plaintiffs this holiday season. Two juries have issued gigantic verdicts in favor of individual plaintiffs in separate employment lawsuits within the past month.

On November 16, 2023, in Sosa v. Comerica Bank, a jury delivered a verdict of $14.17 million consisting of $1.17 million in lost earnings (past and future) and $13 million in emotional

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is already one of the most employee-friendly state civil rights laws in the country. Until now, it was not clear whether employees could sue not only their direct employers for discrimination and harassment, but also other independent businesses that work on behalf on their employers.

In Raines v. U.S. Healthworks Medical Group, the California Supreme Court ruled

The so-called “Fight for 15” – those widespread protests for a $15 minimum wage – are so passé now!

As of July 1, 2023, West Hollywood takes the crown for the highest mandated minimum wage in the United States at $19.08.  Why they didn’t just top it off at $20 is anyone’s guess.  (Not to be completely outmatched, several other localities raised their minimum wage

As the economy continues to struggle amidst the ravages of 40-year-high inflation, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their current staffing levels.

While the tech industry has been the epicenter for layoffs thus far, a growing number of industries are being affected as well, including banking, financial, and legal services, and media outlets.

The trend for mass job cuts appears to be accelerating.

As in other sectors of the economy, there is a labor shortage in the funeral industry.  However, unlike other fields in which the demand for workers is outpacing supply, the interest in joining the ranks of the funeral services business is booming.  The American Board of Funeral Service Education (“ABFSE”), the national academic accreditation agency for college and university programs in Funeral Service and

Amid a recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates in Los Angeles, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (“AMPTP”) announced an extension of and modifications to the existing Return-to-Work Agreement between the Directors Guild of America, the AMPTP, IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, and other industry stakeholders.  The prior iteration of the Agreement had been set to expire on July 15, 2022.

Initially implemented in

As covered previously here, the California Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”) once again has identified a handful of “job killer” bills making their way through the legislative process.  This year’s crop of proposed legislation would, among other things, inflate employer data reporting requirements and further expand the scope of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”).  Several of these recently introduced bills already have passed

In a significant change of course among major employers, Netflix recently made several modifications to its employee culture memo, which is now called “Netflix Culture – Seeking Excellence.”

Among other things, Netflix inserted a section on “Artistic Expression.”  In it, the company acknowledges that “[e]ntertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points

A recent ResumeBuilder survey found that 32% of Americans admit to lying on their resume.  In the current highly active labor market, with 65% of employees searching for a new job according to the PwC US Pulse Survey, employers should carefully review incoming resumes.

Interestingly, the ResumeBuilder survey found: 1) resume lies are most frequent among higher earners and 2) the most common lies

Joining Tesla, Hewlett-Packard and Charles Schwab, Oracle, the world’s largest database management company, has announced that it will move its corporate headquarters from California to Texas.  “We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work,” the company said in its SEC filing.  In 1977, Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle with Bob Miner and