In the article “California Steps Up to Collect Pay Data, With Feds at Square One,” Bloomberg Law reports on new California legislation that authorizes a collection of wage data, broken down by race, sex, ethnicity, and job category, on or before March 31, 2021.
The legal industry publication turned to labor and employment partner Lynne Anderson for insight on the law and whether other states may follow suit.
On September 30, 2020, California Governor Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 973, which requires California private employers with 100 or more employees to submit an annual pay data report to the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing beginning on March 31, 2021. See our previous alert for additional details. We recommend that employers with 100 or more employees in California work with legal counsel as soon as possible to conduct privileged pay audits prior to collecting pay data and submitting the report to California.
With the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) announcement that it would abandon current efforts to collect the controversial Component 2 pay data, California has taken the first step in filling the void left behind by seeking to enact a state law requirement to collect employee compensation.
Continue reading “California Leads the Way for Pay Data Collection and Reporting”
Employees must be paid for time spent waiting for, and undergoing, searches of their bags, packages and personal technology devices, the California Supreme Court ruled February 13, 2020, in Amanda Frlekin, et al. v Apple, Inc., Case No. S243805, answering a question posed to it by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case involving Apple. This decision marks a signature departure from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, under which time spent undergoing mandatory security screenings is not compensable, the U.S. Supreme Court previously held in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 574 U.S. 27 (2014). This is yet another example of the greater protection that California state laws typically offer employees.
Continue reading “California Employers: Required Security Screening May Be Compensable Work Time”
*Originally published by CalCPA in the January/February 2020 issue of California CPA.
More than 300 bills introduced in the 2019 California Legislative session mention “employer,” compared to 589 bills in 2018. While most bills bogged down or died in the Legislature, many of the bills—which likely would have been vetoed by former Gov. Jerry Brown—were signed into law by first-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, ushering in a new wave of more regulation of employers in the Golden State.
The following are essential elements of many key state Assembly Bills (AB) and Senate Bills (SB) that became law Jan. 1 (unless otherwise noted) and affect private employers.
Los Angeles partner Mark Terman and associates Sujata Wiese and Shamar Toms-Anthony updated their article in Practical Law titled “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreements (CA).” In their article, Mark, Sujata and Shamar discuss how companies can protect their information, including the use of confidentiality agreements and related practices, under California law. They also outline practical tips on developing internal systems and contract provisions designed to protect a company’s sensitive information, including its business assets and relationships, data security and trade secrets.
Continue reading “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreements (California)”