Mark E. Terman, Author at Laborsphere

New Year, New Laws for California Employers – Religious Dress and Grooming Protected and Breastfeeding Further Protected

Next in our series, “New Year, New Laws for California Employers,” we take a look at new protections given to Religious Dress and Grooming and Breastfeeding under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Prepared by Mark Terman, partner in the Los Angeles office, this series looks at some of the significant new regulations becoming law in 2013 affecting private employers doing business in California.

Religious Dress and Grooming Protected

California employers should know that the Fair Employment and Housing Act protects the right of individuals to seek, obtain and hold employment without discrimination on account of religions creed, observance and belief. Similarly, employers are required to reasonably accommodate religious belief or observance of an individual unless the accommodation would be an undue hardship to the employer.

AB 1964 extends these protections to “religious dress practice” and “religious grooming practice.” Religious dress practice includes the wearing or carrying of religious clothing, head or face coverings, jewelry, artifacts and any other item that is part of the individual’s observance of his or her religious creed. Religious grooming practice includes all forms of head, facial and body hair that are part of the individual’s religious observance.

This law may cause some employers to act with more tolerance of religious practices than in the past. For example, the law also states that an accommodation is not reasonable if it requires segregation of the employee from the public or other employees. As such, employees who interface with clients or customers may not be disqualified from those positions based upon their religious dress or grooming. Because the bill does not state that it supersedes existing health and safety laws and regulations, workplace safety rules—such as dress and grooming required of employees who operate machinery—should not be affected by the new law.

Breastfeeding Further Protected

The FEHA also protects against discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, which includes gender, pregnancy, childbirth and medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth. AB 2386 adds breastfeeding and medical conditions related to breastfeeding to the FEHA’s definition of “sex.” This clarification in the law, also dovetails with Labor Code secs. 1030-1033, which require reasonable amounts of break time and an adequate private place for mothers to express breast milk at work.

See our earlier post in this series here.

New Year, New Laws for California Employers – Employer Access to Social Media

California employers received more attention in 2012 with 554 bills introduced in the legislature mentioning “employer,” compared to 346 in 2011. Fortunately, most bills do not become law. However, those that do bring with them new challenges for California employers. As 2013 draws near we begin our series, “New Year, New Laws for California Employers. Prepared by Mark Terman, partner in the Los Angeles office, this series will take a look at some of the significant new regulations affecting private employers doing business in California.

Employer Access to Social Media

Social media is everywhere. Facebook, for example, claims 1 billion users with more than 140 billion friend connections among them. For some employers, this may be too attractive a source of information about employees and job applicants. Balancing employee expectations of privacy against employer business protection needs, AB 1844 prohibits employers from requiring or requesting an employee or applicant to disclose a username or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media or to access personal social media in the presence of the employer or to divulge any personal social media.

It also prohibits employers from discharging, disciplining (or threatening to do so) or retaliating against an employee or applicant for refusing a demand or request by the employer that violates this law.

Excepted from this new law are employer requests to divulge personal social media reasonably believed to be relevant to an investigation of allegations of employee misconduct or employee violation of applicable laws and regulations, provided that the social media is used solely for purposes of that investigation or a related proceeding.

Nothing in this law limits an employer from requiring or requesting an employee to disclose a username, password or other method for the purpose of accessing an employer-issued electronic device.

At the same time, the National Labor Relations Board and its counsel continue to opine on when an employer’s policies

or actions regarding employee use of social media interfere with the protection of concerted activity of employees to, for example, discuss wages and working conditions, whether it involves union activity.

The NLRB general counsel’s third and most recent report, which may surprise nonunion employers, is at www.calcpa.org/ NLRBsocialmediapolicies.

New Year, New Laws in California

As long as the sun rises each day, regulation of California employers will increases each year. And employers received more attention this year with 554 bills introduced in the California Legislature mentioning “employer,” compared to 346 last year. Fortunately, most bills do not become law. Mark Terman, partner in the Los Angeles office, has compiled an overview of significant new regulation affecting private employers which appears in the December issue of CAL CPA magazine. To read the list in its entirety click here.

A Litigator’s Perspective on Trade Secret Protection Programs: How to Protect Your Valuable Information Against Rogue Employees

Mark E. Terman, a partner in the Los Angeles office and a member of the Competitive Advantage practice team, authoried the article “A Litigator’s Perspective on Trade Secret Protection Programs: How to Protect Your Valuable Information Against Rogue Employees,” which was recently published on InsideCounsel.com. Mark’s article discusses the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and its variations, as well as questions companies should consider when developing their own trade secret program. Mark also emphasizes that companies should have a program to deter and limit trade secret misappropriation. “A seeming axiom of trade secret and unfair competition litigation is that the more brazen and dishonest the behavior of the former employee (and perhaps their new employer), the more accommodating a court may be to a company whose proof is less than perfect. By contrast, the thinner a company plaintiff’s proof is, the more a court may accept a former employee’s argument that there is nothing secret, nor valuable in the assets even if their theft can be proven” he says.

To read the entire article click here.