Blog: The Labor & Employment Law Blog

In December 2023, the California Civil Rights Department (“CRD”) filed the first-of-its-kind lawsuit under the California Fair Chance Act (“Act”) against Ralphs Grocery Store (“Ralphs”) in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Read More

California law requires private employers with 100 or more employees and/or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors to annually report pay, demographic, and other workforce data to the Civil Rights Department (CRD). This year, the pay data reporting portal opened on February 1, 2024, and employers have until May 8, 2024 to submit their annual reports. To aid employers, the CRD released updated FAQs as well as new versions of the pay data reporting Excel templates, a user guide, and training slides. The FAQS are available here.

Read More

Last October, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1076 into law and it became effective as of January 1, 2024.  AB 1076 was the Legislature’s attempt to codify the California Supreme Court’s 2008 decision, Edwards v. Arthur Anderson LLP, which held that non-compete agreements in the employment context are unenforceable unless they fall within one of the three narrow statutory exceptions dealing primarily with the sale of business interests.  AB 1076 makes clear that requiring an employee to enter into a non-compete is unlawful and can subject the employer to penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

Read More

Long-time blog readers and CEN watchers will recall that for the last several years, we have been watching several cases discussing whether Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) claims may be stricken as unmanageable. First, in the Fall of 2021, an appellate court determined that trial courts have inherent authority to strike or limit PAGA claims that could not otherwise be made manageable in order to “preserve judicial resources [and to] prevent trials from becoming excessively complex and time-consuming.” (See Wesson v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC (2021) 68 Cal.App.5th 746).  Just a few months later, a different appellate court disagreed, concluding that while a court may limit the presentation of evidence to ensure a manageable trial, courts had no authority to strike or limit PAGA claims due to unmanageability. (See Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc. (2022) 76 Cal. App. 5th 685.)

Read More

Most California employers have workplace violence and safety policies as part of their Employee Handbooks, but beginning next year, these policies will need to be updated to comply with new, robust requirements.  In addition, workplace violence incident logs will need to be maintained, and annual employee training will need to be provided.

Read More

The Legislature was busy again in 2023, and the Governor signed a number of employment-related bills. This blog post is not intended to discuss the details of every employment bill that was signed into law. Instead, below is a list of certain bills employers should be aware of, and we invite you to join Weintraub Tobin’s FREE “Year in Review” seminar series on January 10, 2024 and January 17, 2024 where some of the bills, and other employment law developments, will be discussed. Come join the experienced team of employment attorneys at Weintraub Tobin and learn about your new compliance obligations. We look forward to seeing you.

Read More

On September 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 699 into law, which will bolster California’s prohibition of non-compete agreements.

The prohibition of non-compete agreements is not new news. Non-compete agreements were not enforceable prior to SB 699 being signed into law under California Business and Professions Code section 16600. The Code section explains how every contract restraining anyone from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is void, except under limited statutory exceptions. SB 699, which will be codified as Business and Professions Code section 16600.5 and go into effect on January 1, 2024, reiterates existing law and extends the reach of California’s restriction on non-compete agreements. The new law:

Read More

On August 2, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a decision in Stericycle, Inc., in which they adopted new rules for evaluating whether the policies related to employee conduct in employee handbooks violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).

Read More

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court, in Adolph v. Uber Technologies, Inc., addressed the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, 142 S.Ct. 1906 (2022). The much-anticipated Adolph decision, addresses the question of whether an “aggrieved employee,” who has been compelled to arbitrate individual PAGA claims (i.e. Labor Code violations allegedly suffered by the plaintiff in an individual capacity), loses standing to pursue non-individual PAGA claims (i.e. Labor Code violations allegedly suffered by other employees) in court. 

Read More