California Labor & Employment Law

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Lee v. West Kern Water Dist., 5 Cal. App. 5th 606 (2016)

Kathy Lee, an employee of the water district, sued the district and four co-employees for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress after the co-employees staged a “mock robbery” without Lee’s knowledge and one of them (while wearing a mask) confronted her at the cashier’s window with a note demanding money and…

Soria v. Univision Radio Los Angeles, Inc., 5 Cal. App. 5th 570 (2016)

Sofia Soria worked as an on-air radio personality for Univision for approximately 14 years before her employment was terminated for alleged tardiness and lack of preparation for her show. In response to Soria’s lawsuit for alleged disability discrimination, Univision argued it had no knowledge of Soria’s alleged disability (a benign tumor)…

Wilson v. Cable News Network, Inc., 2016 WL 7217201 (Cal. Ct. App. 2016)

Stanley Wilson alleged discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and defamation against CNN, et al., where he worked as a television producer before his employment was terminated following an audit of his work involving suspected plagiarism.  Defendants answered the complaint and then filed a special motion to strike all causes of action pursuant…

Lubin v. The Wackenhut Corp., 5 Cal. App. 5th 926 (2016)

Nivida Lubin, et al., filed this class action lawsuit against their employer for its alleged failure to provide Lubin and similarly situated employees (private security guards) with off-duty meal and rest breaks and for providing inadequate wage statements. The trial court initially certified a class of all non-exempt security officers employed by Wackenhut…

Augustus v. ABM Sec. Servs., Inc., 2016 WL 7407328 (Cal. S. Ct. 2016)

Jennifer Augustus filed this putative class action on behalf of all ABM security guards, alleging that ABM consistently failed to provide uninterrupted rest periods as required by state law. During discovery, ABM acknowledged that it required guards to keep their radios and pagers on, remain vigilant and respond when needs arose, such…

$90 Million Judgment Reinstated:  Employers Must Relieve Employees Of All Duties During Their Break Time

Today, the California Supreme Court ruled that California law strictly prohibits on-duty rest periods.  “What [the law] require[s] instead is that employers relinquish any control over how employees spend their break time, and relieve their employees of all duties – including the obligation that an employee remain on call.”  This…

On December 9, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the “Fair Chance Initiative” into law. The new law, also referred to as the “Ban the Box” ordinance, restricts employers in the City of Los Angeles from asking job applicants about criminal convictions until after a conditional offer of employment has been made. Although some exceptions apply in fields such as law enforcement and child…

We invite you to review our newly-posted October 2016 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law. The highlights include:

Newly Enacted California Statutes

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In 2015, the Legislature enacted significant amendments to California’s Equal Pay Act (Labor Code § 1197.5) to address gender wage inequality. This year, the Legislature enacted additional amendments to the statute prohibiting wage inequality based upon race or ethnicity for substantially similar work. (SB 1063.) Additionally, the Legislature enacted a further amendment specifying that an employee’s prior salary cannot, by itself,…

This bill prohibits an employer from asking an applicant for employment to disclose, or from utilizing as a factor in determining any condition of employment, information concerning or related to an arrest, detention, processing, diversion, supervision, adjudication, or court disposition that occurred while the person was subject to the process and jurisdiction of juvenile court law. “Adjudication” includes the crimes of murder, arson, rape, kidnapping,…