As we reported here, California’s Senate Bill (S.B.) 399, took effect on January 1, 2025. This law prohibits employers from requiring employees to attend meetings about the company’s opinions on political or religious matters, including discussions about unionization. California joins almost a dozen other states, including Illinois, New York, and Oregon, in enacting union-backed statutes that prohibit so-called “captive audience” meetings.

The Teamsters

Wildfires continue to rage across Southern California, leveling entire neighborhoods, forcing evacuations for tens of thousands of people, and posing incredible hardship on businesses and their employees.  Below are a few common scenarios employers should know about paying their California employees and maintaining compliance with wage and hour laws:

“Our office was closed for a few days because of the fires.  Do we have to

In yet another attempt to avoid arbitration agreements, plaintiffs’ lawyers in the wake of the blockbuster court decisions in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana and Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc. began filing so-called “headless” claims for civil penalties under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”).  In such cases, the plaintiff seeks civil penalties for all allegedly aggrieved employees except themself.  Thus, these

As 2024 came to a close, yet another California jury delivered a massive award to an individual plaintiff in an employment discrimination case.  This time, it was an award of over $11 million by a San Diego jury to a medical screener at a plasma donation center (Roque v. Octapharma Plasma, Inc.).  The 74-year-old plaintiff alleged that her employer failed to accommodate her

The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has released updated guidance clarifying how the state’s latest statutory enactments will impact employers’ paid sick leave obligations.  Specifically, as we reported here, Assembly Bill (AB) 2499 and Senate Bill (SB) 1105 expand the permissible reasons for which employees can use paid sick leave.

The updated FAQs now explain that, in addition to existing uses of paid

On November 8, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) voted 4-1 to proceed with formal rulemaking regarding automated decision-making technology (“ADMT”), which the draft regulations define as “any technology that processes personal information and uses computation to execute a decision, replace human decisionmaking, or substantially facilitate human decisionmaking.”  If enacted, the regulations would impose sweeping requirements on employers who rely on assistance from artificial

The California Labor Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) recently refreshed its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims processing in light of the recent legislative reforms.

As we reported here, California enacted A.B. 2288 and S.B. 92 this past summer, bringing long-overdue reforms to PAGA.  The new legislation applies to PAGA notices and any resulting actions filed on or after June

The future of PAGA continues to look a bit brighter for employers as new favorable case law emerges. We previously reported on Turrieta v. Lyft, Inc. wherein the California Supreme Court ruled that PAGA plaintiffs have no standing to intervene in parallel PAGA lawsuits. We are now happy to report that another “win” for employers has come out of Second Appellate District of the Los

Labor Co-Chair Tony Oncidi joins Bloomberg Law podcast host June Grasso to discuss the five employment law cases currently pending before the US Supreme Court.  Those cases involve issues ranging from a heterosexual employee’s claim that she was discriminated against because of her sexual orientation and a terminated employee’s RICO claim against a cannabis company that mislabeled its “elixir” and caused the employee to fail a