Unbowed and unbroken, California continues to work toward creating that Workers’ Paradise in the Sun, and this legislative session did not disappoint!  Here are the latest new laws that will take effect by the first of the year:

LawSummary & Impact on Employers
AB 1815

Weber (D-San Diego)
Expansion of the CROWN Act.  The Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) already defines the

On July 25, 2024, the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 22, the law allowing gig economy workers to be classified as independent contractors.  The decision ends a nearly four-year legal battle over the law’s constitutionality and constitutes a major victory for gig economy giants like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash.

Since Prop 22 was passed by California voters in 2020, companies have been

For the second year in a row, California has avoided being “the worst in the nation,” but still managed to secure the unenviable third position on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s (“ATRF”) Annual Judicial Hellholes List.

The ATRF characterizes California as the “plaintiffs’ bar’s laboratory for finding new ways to expand liability,” highlighting several key judicial and legislative trends contributing to each Californian paying an

Raines v. U.S. Healthworks Med. Group, 2023 WL 5341067 (Cal. S. Ct. 2023)

The Ninth Circuit certified to the California Supreme Court the question of whether FEHA’s definition of “employer” extends to corporate agents of the employer such as a company that conducts preemployment medical screenings.  In this putative class action, plaintiffs allege that their employment offers were conditioned upon their completion of pre-employment

Adolph v. Uber Techs., Inc., 14 Cal. 5th 1104 (2023)

After months of anticipation, the California Supreme Court answered “yes” to the critical question of whether “aggrieved” PAGA plaintiffs retain their standing to pursue representative claims in court after their individual claims have been compelled to arbitration.

Erik Adolph worked as a driver for Uber, delivering food to customers through Uber’s online platform.  As

We invite you to review our newly-posted July 2023 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law. The highlights include:

Morales-Garcia v. Better Produce, Inc., 70 F.4th 532 (9th Cir. 2023)

Agricultural laborers who picked strawberries for several growers sued the growers’ distributors, Better Market Produce and Red Blossom Sales, alleging that the distributors were liable for unpaid wages after the growers went bankrupt.  Under Cal. Lab. Code § 2810.3, a company that outsources work to a labor provider may be held liable for

Quinn v. LPL Fin. LLC, 91 Cal. App. 5th 370 (2023)

Alleging misclassification, John Quinn brought a PAGA action on behalf of a class consisting of securities broker-dealers and investment advisers against his employer LPL Financial.  Quinn brought the PAGA action prior to the enactment of AB 2257, which exempted the occupations identified in Quinn’s PAGA action from the “ABC test” as set

We invite you to review our newly-posted May 2023 California Employment Law Notes, a comprehensive review of the latest and most significant developments in California employment law. The highlights include:

Olson v. State of Cal., 62 F.4th 1206 (9th Cir. 2023)

In the latest in a string of defeats for the State of California, a Ninth Circuit panel unanimously held that AB 5 (the anti-independent contractor law) may violate the equal protection rights of independent contractor drivers and the gig companies that retain them.  The panel found that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that