California Employment Law Notes

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Farmers Bros. Coffee v. WCAB, 133 Cal. App. 4th 533, 35 Cal. Rptr. 3d 23 (2005)

When Rafael Ruiz, an illegal alien, sought workers’ compensation benefits from his employer, Farmers Brothers Coffee, the company asserted that the California law under which Ruiz could be considered an employee was preempted by the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). The WCAB rejected the…

First Aid Services of San Diego, Inc. v. California Employment Dev. Dep’t, 133 Cal. App. 4th 1470 (2005)

First Aid Services of San Diego, Inc. challenged the California Employment Development Department’s decision to grant unemployment benefits to Tiffany Whittaker, an emergency medical technician employed by an ambulance service, who supplemented her income by accepting assignments from First Aid, a company that sends EMT’s to…

IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 21, 126 S. Ct. 514 (2005)

Non-exempt meat packing employees of IBP, Inc. (the world’s largest producer of fresh beef, pork and related products) filed a class action lawsuit alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the employees who alleged that they should have been paid for the…

Raghavan v. Boeing Co., 133 Cal. App. 4th 1120 (2005)

Krishnan Raghavan sued Boeing for defamation, among other things, based upon a written reprimand that Raghavan received in which he was accused of (1) failing to disclose all relevant information concerning a business trip he had made to Russia in April 2001 and (2) providing false or misleading information to Boeing executives during a…

Cicairos v. Summit Logistics, Inc., 133 Cal. App. 4th 949 (2005)

In this case, five truck drivers/members of the Teamsters Union, sued their former employer for violations of the Labor Code and the Industrial Welfare Commission orders relating to meal periods, rest breaks and itemized wage statements. The trial court dismissed the action based on the motor carrier exemption. The Court of Appeal reversed…

Gattuso v. Harte-Hanks Shoppers, Inc., 35 Cal. Rptr. 3d 260 (2005)

Frank Gattuso and Ernest Sigala brought a class action on behalf of themselves and other employees of Harte- Hanks, seeking indemnification for expenses they incurred in using their personal automobiles in the discharge of their employment duties as outside sales representatives (OSR’s). Harte-Hanks presented evidence that its OSR’s were paid a higher base…

Hardage v. CBS Broadcasting, Inc., 427 F.3d 1177 (9th Cir. 2005)

Hugh Hardage, a Local Sales Manager for KSTW-TV in Seattle, alleged that he was sexually harassed by Kathy Sparks, the station’s General Manager, who worked in Tacoma. Hardage claimed that he had been sexually harassed by Sparks on several occasions and subjected to retaliation after he rejected her advances, which occurred in the…

Falkowski v. Imation Corp., 132 Cal. App. 4th 499 (2005)

Plaintiffs in this class action were employees of Cemax- Icon, Inc., a closely held company in the medical information management business. This litigation arose after Imation Corporation, a publicly traded company, acquired Cemax, which became a subsidiary of Imation. At the time of the merger, Imation replaced the employees’ Cemax employee stock options with…

Brown v. Department of Corrections, 132 Cal. App. 4th 520 (2005)

Kevin Brown, a correctional officer at the High Desert Prison, alleged a violation of Labor Code § 1102.5 (the whistleblower statute) and of Government Code § 8547.8 (a similar whistleblower statute applicable to state employees), arising from statements made by the Department’s inspector general to law enforcement officials requesting official action in response…

Conley v. Pacific Gas & Elec., 131 Cal. App. 4th 260 (2005)

Two senior new business representatives and two engineers of PG&E filed this class-action lawsuit, alleging that they and others had been improperly classified as exempt employees under federal and state overtime law. Plaintiffs challenged PG&E’s policy of making deductions from exempt employees’ vacation-leave accruals for partial-day absences on the ground that such…