California Employment Law Notes

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Campbell v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, 642 F.3d 820 (2011)

Two thousand unlicensed junior accountants brought this wage-and-hour class action against PwC, alleging they were improperly classified as exempt from overtime. The parties filed cross-motions for partial summary judgment, and the district court granted the employees’ motion, holding as a matter of law that they were not exempt under the professional or administrative exemptions. The Ninth Circuit…

Sullivan v. Oracle Corp., 51 Cal. 4th 1191 (2011)

In this case, the California Supreme Court answered three questions certified to it by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as follows: (1) California’s overtime law applies to work performed in California for a California employer by nonresident workers; (2) the Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) applies to violations of the overtime…

Areso v. CarMax, Inc., 195 Cal. App. 4th 996 (2011)

Leena Areso, who worked as a commissioned sales consultant for CarMax, filed this class action lawsuit, asserting that she and the members of the putative class were owed unpaid overtime. Areso argued that CarMax’s uniform payment of approximately $150 per vehicle is piece-rate compensation rather than a commission because it is not based on…

Quinn v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 196 Cal. App. 4th 168 (2011)

Robert Quinn, a former senior vice president of U.S. Bank, alleged he was denied accommodation, harassed and terminated because of a physical disability in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act. U.S. Bank obtained summary judgment from the trial court on the ground that Quinn’s FEHA claims were preempted by the dismissal-at-pleasure…

Kelley v. The Conco Cos., 196 Cal. App. 4th 191 (2011)

Patrick Kelley, an apprentice ironworker, complained to his employer, Conco, that he had been subjected to a “barrage of sexually demeaning comments and gestures by his male supervisor” (David Seamen). After Kelley’s union suspended him from its apprenticeship program, he was not rehired by Conco. Kelley sued for sexual harassment and retaliation in…

Bauman v. Daimler Chrysler Corp., 644 F.3d 909 (2011)

In this case, 22 Argentinian residents (including a Chilean national) sued DaimlerChrysler Aktiengesellschaft (“DCAG”) in federal court in California, alleging that one of DCAG’s subsidiaries, Mercedes-Benz Argentina (“MBA”), collaborated with state security forces to kidnap, detain, torture and kill plaintiffs and their relatives during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s. (Some of the plaintiffs are…

Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, 563 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 1968 (2011)

In 1996, Congress created E-Verify, which is “an internet-based system that allows an employer to verify an employee’s work-authorization status.” In 2007, Arizona enacted the Legal Arizona Workers Act, which allows Arizona to suspend or revoke the licenses necessary to do business in the state if an employer knowingly or intentionally…

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011)

The United States Supreme Court held that this class of as many as 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees was improperly certified by the lower court. The three lead plaintiffs claimed they were discriminated against on the basis of their gender and that Wal-Mart’s policy of providing deference to local managers’ subjective…

We invite you to review our newly posted May 2011 California Employment Law Notes — a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law.  The highlights include: 

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AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011)

In this landmark new opinion, the United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) prohibits states from conditioning the enforceability of an arbitration agreement on the availability of class action arbitration procedures. Although this case arose in the consumer context (it involved AT&T’s charging sales tax for “free phones”), it has far-reaching…