A new California law, effective January 1, 2022, closely regulates productivity quotas for warehouse distribution centers.  AB 701 applies to employers of 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center or 1,000 or more employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the state and purports to address warehouse safety concerns by imposing the following:

  • Requires employers to provide a written description of each quota to which an employee is subject and any potential adverse employment action that could result from failure to meet the quota;
  • Prohibits employers from requiring that workers meet a quota that prevents them from taking meal or rest breaks or complying with other health and safety laws;
  • Prohibits adverse action against an employee for failure to meet a quota that has not been disclosed or does not allow a worker to comply with meal and rest break or occupational health and safety laws;
  • Allows a current or former employee (who believes their rights have been violated due to a quota) to request one written description of each quota to which the employee is subject and a copy of the most recent 90 days of the employee’s own personal work speed data. An employer must abide by this request and there shall be a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation if an employer in any manner discriminates, retaliates, or takes any adverse action against any employee within 90 days of the employee requesting quota information or making a complaint related to a quota;
  • Authorizes a current or former employee to bring an action for injunctive relief to obtain compliance with specified requirements, and that employee may, upon prevailing in the action, recover costs and reasonable attorney’s fees in that action;
  • Requires the Labor Commissioner to enforce these provisions and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health or the Division of Workers’ Compensation to notify the Commissioner if a particular worksite or employer is found to have an annual employee injury rate of at least 1.5 times higher than the warehousing industry’s average annual injury rate.

The California Chamber of Commerce initially placed AB 701 on its “job killer” list.  Although it was removed from this list, opponents warned that it would adversely impact small businesses, consumers and farmers by increasing costs for everyday goods, creating disruptions across vital supply chains and making it more challenging to keep goods on shelves.  This law also risks encouraging frivolous lawsuits by creating new causes of action under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA).

The author of this new law, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), is the same legislator who brought us Assembly Bill 5 (which largely outlawed independent contractors in California).  Assemblywoman Gonzalez is the former CEO and Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.  She received approximately 40 percent of all of her campaign contributions last year from organized labor.

We will continue to monitor this new law and provide any relevant updates.

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.

Photo of Ariel Brotman Ariel Brotman

Ariel Brotman is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She represents employers in all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, trade secrets, and…

Ariel Brotman is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She represents employers in all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, trade secrets, and breach of contract litigation, in both the single-plaintiff and class-action context. She also counsels employers on a diverse range of workplace issues.

Ariel earned her J.D. from USC Gould School of Law, where she was a member of the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal. During law school, she was also a clinical student in the University of Southern California Immigration Clinic. In addition, she served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Robert N. Kwan in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.