Last week, we reported that the California Labor Commissioner issued a template “Notice to Employee” as required by the Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2011 (the “Act”), which went into effect January 1. The Act requires employers to furnish specified wage information to certain non-exempt employees at the time of their hire.

As we also pointed out, the Commissioner’s “Frequently Asked Questions,” published December 30, 2011, stated that the Notice (or the information contained therein) must be given to all current employees, despite the fact that the statute calls only for employers to provide such data to employees “at the time of hiring.” We placed a call to the DLSE shortly after the FAQs were issued, and the agency responded yesterday by updating its Web site. The FAQs, which can be found here, now reflect that the information required under new Labor Code § 2810.5 need only be provided at the time of hiring and within 7 days of a change in such information, if the change is not listed on the employee’s pay stub for the following pay period.

Please visit the update to this entry, available here.

On the eve of the implementation of California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2011, the California Labor Commissioner has made available to employers a template Notice (Word / pdf) that complies with the requirements of new Labor Code § 2810.5. Beginning January 1, 2012, Section 2810.5 requires employers to furnish specified wage information captured by the Notice to most non-exempt employees. All required information must be provided to employees in the language that the employer normally uses to communicate employment-related information.

Marathon Entm’t, Inc. v. Blasi, 42 Cal. 4th 974 (2008)

Marathon Entertainment and Rosa Blasi entered into an oral contract by which Marathon would serve as Blasi’s personal manager in exchange for 15% of Blasi’s earnings from entertainment employment obtained during the course of the contract. Marathon sued Blasi after she reneged on her agreement to pay 15% of her earnings to Marathon. Blasi

Gonzalez v. Beck, 158 Cal. App. 4th 598 (2007)

Josepha Gonzalez worked as a caregiver and housekeeper for the Beck Family. Upon the termination of her employment, she filed a claim for unpaid wages with the California Labor Commissioner. When the Becks failed to answer or appear at the administrative hearing, Gonzalez obtained an award of $70,238.54 (including interest and penalties) from the Commissioner

Lolley v. Campbell, 28 Cal. 4th 367 (2002)

Chris Lolley filed a claim with the California Labor Commissioner to recover unpaid overtime wages and penalties. The Labor Commissioner awarded the employee $27,216, and the employer appealed to the superior court. At Lolley’s request, the Labor Commissioner determined that Lolley could not afford counsel and agreed to represent him in the superior court action. After