Tony Oncidi
Partner
Anthony J. Oncidi heads the Labor & Employment Law Group in the 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.
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We invite you to review our newly-posted November 2019 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law. The highlights include: Court Upholds Whistleblower Verdicts In Favor Of Fired Parking Ticket Hearing Examiners College Professor Was Retaliated Against For Complaining About Hostile Environment Discriminatory Failure-To-Hire Claim Must … Continue Reading
Gonzales v. San Gabriel Transit, Inc., 2019 WL 4942213 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) Francisco Gonzales filed this putative class action against his former employer, San Gabriel Transit (“SGT”), alleging that he and 550 other drivers were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. The trial court denied class certification on the ground that Gonzales had … Continue Reading
O’Grady v. Merchant Exchange Prods., Inc., 2019 WL 5617001 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) In this putative class action, banquet server and bartender Lauren O’Grady alleged that her employer’s practice of automatically imposing a 21 percent “service charge” to every food and beverage banquet bill constituted a gratuity that had to be fully paid to nonmanagerial … Continue Reading
Naranjo v. Spectrum Sec. Servs., Inc., 40 Cal. App. 5th 444 (2019) Spectrum contracts with federal agencies to take temporary custody of federal prisoners and ICE detainees who must travel offsite for medical treatment and other appointments; Spectrum’s officers provide continuous supervision until the individuals are returned to their custodial locations. Spectrum had a policy … Continue Reading
Southern Cal. Pizza Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, 40 Cal. App. 5th 140 (2019) Lloyds of London provided the employer in this case with an employment practices liability insurance (“EPLI”) policy, which contained an exclusion relating to “wage and hour or overtime law(s).” In this insurance coverage dispute, the employer alleged the policy … Continue Reading
Liday v. Sim, 40 Cal. App. 5th 359 (2019) Lea Liday sued her former employers for unpaid wages incurred from April 2010 until April 2014. Liday worked as the family’s live-in caretaker for their children and was paid a fixed salary of $3,000 per month. The trial court determined that Liday was a “personal attendant” … Continue Reading
Carroll v. City & County of San Francisco, 2019 WL 5617019 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) Joyce Carroll retired from her job working for the City of San Francisco in 2000 due to rheumatoid arthritis; since that time, Carroll received monthly disability retirement benefit payments. Plaintiff alleged that she became aware in 2017 (17 years after … Continue Reading
Salazar v. McDonald’s Corp., 939 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2019) McDonald’s Corporation (“McDonald’s”) was named as a defendant in a putative class action filed by the employees of the Haynes Family Limited Partnership, which operated eight McDonald’s franchises in the Bay Area. The putative class members alleged they were denied overtime premiums, meal and rest … Continue Reading
Jimenez v. U.S. Continental Mktg., Inc., 2019 WL 5257938 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) Elvia Velasco Jimenez asserted claims under the FEHA against her “contracting employer,” a manufacturing company named U.S. Continental Marketing Inc. (“USCM”) for which she performed services, and a “temporary-staffing agency” named Ameritemps. At trial, the jury agreed with USCM that it was … Continue Reading
Nejadian v. County of Los Angeles, 40 Cal. App. 5th 703 (2019) Patrick Nejadian sued his former employer, the County of Los Angeles, for age discrimination and retaliation and was awarded $300,000 on the retaliation claims (arising under the FEHA and the Labor Code); the jury found no liability on the age discrimination claim. The … Continue Reading
Williams v. Sacramento River Cats Baseball Club, LLC, 40 Cal. App. 5th 280 (2019) Wilfert Williams sued the Sacramento River Cats Baseball Club under a common law tort action for allegedly failing to hire him as an assistant visitor clubhouse manager because of his race. The trial court sustained the employer’s demurrer to the complaint … Continue Reading
Gupta v. Trustees of the Cal. State Univ., 40 Cal. App. 5th 510 (2019) Rashmi Gupta was denied a promotion to associate professor and lifetime tenure at San Francisco State University and was terminated after she and several other women of color in the University’s School of Social Work complained about alleged “abuse of power … Continue Reading
Hawkins v. City of Los Angeles, 40 Cal. App. 5th 384 (2019) Todd Hawkins and Hyung Kim were terminated from their jobs as hearing examiners at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Hawkins and Kim alleged they had been fired for whistleblowing on the City’s practice of pressuring parking ticket hearing examiners to change decisions … Continue Reading
Last week, we blogged about the avalanche of new labor laws that California employers will face in 2020. Here are two late additions to the list — just in time for Halloween!: AB 61 (Ting, D-San Francisco) grants employers and coworkers the right to petition a court to issue a gun violence restraining order, which prevents an … Continue Reading
Here’s a comprehensive list of the new employment-related statutes enacted and signed into law in the Golden State (effective Jan. 1, 2020 unless otherwise specified): AB 5 (Gonzalez, D-San Diego) makes it extremely difficult for most California employers to hire an independent contractor and would convert such workers into “employees” in the eyes of the … Continue Reading
On Thursday, October 10, 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law several new measures that employers will need to comply with by January 1, 2020 and that will generally make it easier for employees to sue their employers. Specifically: AB 9 extends the statute of limitations period for employees to file claims of discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation … Continue Reading
Following passage of AB-5, the recent string of multi-million dollar employee jury verdicts, and other challenging developments, we concluded that our subscribers need some feel-good news every meow and then (sorry). An association of lawyers in Brasília, Brazil has hired Leon the cat as one of their new “attorneys” in order to lighten the mood around … Continue Reading
In an effort to give consumers more control over the data businesses collect from and about them, the California legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2018 (and amended it a few months later). The CCPA gives consumers the right to know about and have deleted the data businesses have gathered about them, among … Continue Reading
California Supreme Court Invalidates Agreement To Arbitrate Wage Disputes OTO, LLC v. Kho, 2019 WL 4065524 (Cal. S. Ct. 2019) In the most recent chapter of the ongoing saga regarding the enforceability of arbitration agreements in California, the California Supreme Court has determined that because the execution of the arbitration agreement in this case involved … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court held that private litigants may not recover unpaid wages under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). See ZB, N.A. v. Superior Court (Lawson) (Cal. S. Ct. Sept. 12, 2019). In a rearguard effort to fight employment arbitration agreements, which usually include class action waivers, plaintiffs’ lawyers have been … Continue Reading
Please see the linked Los Angeles Daily Journal article for details about some major recent developments affecting employment arbitration in California.… Continue Reading
Assembly Bill 5, a proposed new law currently pending in the California legislature, would limit and codify last year’s California Supreme Court Dynamex opinion. If passed and signed into law by Gov. Newsom (he’s already said he’ll sign it), AB-5 would make it nearly impossible for most California employers to hire an independent contractor and … Continue Reading
These days, more employers than ever are purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance (“EPLI”) to cover them in the event they get sued for employment-related claims. (See our earlier posting on that topic: “A Handy Guide for Choosing and Using Employment Practices Liability Insurance Coverage.”) As we pointed out in that article, there are definitely some … Continue Reading
Employers all over California are once again hearing the siren call of arbitration in the wake of a $15.4 million single-plaintiff verdict that a Los Angeles jury delivered to a former Los Angeles Times sports columnist on Monday. T.J. Simers sued the paper for age and disability discrimination. Simers quit his job in 2013 … Continue Reading
November 2019 California Employment Law Notes
Determination Of Class Certification Motion Should Be Based On Dynamex’s “ABC Test”
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Independent Contractors
Employer’s “Service Charge” May Be A Gratuity Owed To Employees
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Wage and Hour
Employer Must Have Written Meal Period Agreement, Which Includes A Revocation Clause
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Meal Periods and Rest Breaks
Expense Reimbursement Claims Are Covered By Employment Practices Insurance
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Expense Reimbursement
Live-In Nanny Is Entitled To Unpaid Wages, But Less Than $403,000
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Overtime
Statute Of Limitations Runs From The Date Of Each Allegedly Discriminatory Payment
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in FEHA
McDonald’s Corp Was Not The Joint Employer Of Its Franchisees’ Employees
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Joint Employer
Employer May Have FEHA Liability If It Exercised Direction/Control Over Temp Worker
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in FEHA
Employee Failed To Present Sufficient Evidence At Trial To Support Retaliation Claim
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Retaliation
Discriminatory Failure-To-Hire Claim Must Be Brought Under The FEHA
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in FEHA
College Professor Was Retaliated Against For Complaining About Hostile Environment
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Retaliation
Court Upholds Whistleblower Verdicts In Favor Of Fired Parking Ticket Hearing Examiners
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Whistleblowers
Two Important Stragglers Among California’s New Labor Laws
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, New and Proposed Laws and Legislation
Take That, Employers! California is Done (for Now) with this Year’s Legislative Thrashing
California Enacts a Raft of New Employment Laws
Stray Kitty Moonlights as Lawyer
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law
Employees Will Be Exempted from Most Requirements of the Amended California Consumer Privacy Act … For Now
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Privacy
California Employment Law Notes
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law
California Supreme Court Hands Employers A Rare Victory, Trims Bloated PAGA Claims
By Tony Oncidi, Kate Gold and Philippe A. Lebel on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, PAGA, Uncategorized
Arbitration Wars: A Report from the Front
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Arbitration Agreements, California Labor & Employment Law
Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash Pledge $90 Million To Fund Voter Initiative To Overturn Assembly Bill 5
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Independent Contractors
Employer Sues Its Law Firm for Malpractice and EPLI Insurer for Bad Faith
By Tony Oncidi on Posted in Insurance, Wage and Hour, Wrongful Termination
