The California Labor Commissioner recently cited the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC and three janitorial contractors more than $2 million for misclassifying 155 janitors as independent contractors at its Half Moon Bay hotel. The citations include $1.9 million in wages and penalties payable to the affected workers. The state found that Ritz-Carlton had hired out…
Revisiting Regular Rate of Pay – How to Calculate it and When to Pay It
Many California Labor Code sections, as well as federal wage and hour law, require that we pay our non-exempt employees based on the REGULAR RATE OF PAY (“RROP”), not the “base pay” or hourly pay that we agree to pay them. For example, overtime (under BOTH federal and state law) must be paid at the…
Proper Documentation Can Help Protect Your Business Against Costly Retaliation Jury Verdicts
Two recent court decisions provide valuable lessons for California employers. The first is a $27 million award in favor of a nurse who raised safety concerns against her employer, Dignity Health, and convinced a Los Angeles jury she was fired in retaliation. The second is an appellate decision invalidating an employer’s arbitration clause based on…
PAGA Reform – One Year Later
I get questions all the time; did the PAGA Reform deliver on providing the changes it promised. The short answer is “maybe.” Every lawyer’s favorite response, right? The truth is, it’s still a little early to even know. In the world of litigation, especially collective action litigation (PAGA and class actions), time moves very slowly. …
The ICE Men Cometh and Remain
In her press conference in Los Angeles last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reiterated their intent to remain in our city. The federal courts continue to debate President Trump‘s ability to federalize the National Guard and send military personnel to Los Angeles, above the protestations of Governor Newsom. Exceptions to Reporting…
Preparing For ICE Raids – the Redux
While current events have been far more explosive than anticipated, these raids should not be a surprise. I wrote two articles on this topic months ago because the ICE raids and increased deportation activity have been a publicized part of this administration’s agenda well before the election. I reported on this topic back in February…
Time For the July 1 Wage Hikes and Maybe Other Changes
For the past several years, California has been increasing its minimum wage annually, on January 1. This year, minimum wage for the state grew to $16.50. Many municipalities, such as Oakland and San Diego, also hike their minimum wages effective the start of the year. However, many other cities, including the City of Los Angeles,…
Refresher on Joint Employment Issues
The issue of “joint employment” arises in a few different contexts and can impact many of you. It drew a lot of attention during the Biden administration, especially in the franchise/franchisor world. Every time there is an administration change, the National Labor Relations Administration (NLRA) changes its stance on the relationship between franchisors and franchisees,…
Discharging Difficult Employees
I know; the title of the topic seems obvious. Of course, we are usually not terminating exceptional employees. But there are underperforming employees, and then, there are the ones who have been making our lives miserable. The ones who challenge our every directive. The ones who produce an AI generated diatribe in response to every…
Managing Remote Employees
Five years have passed since the pandemic began, when the world shut down and many of us pivoted to working from home. We relied on technology in a whole new way. Zoom meetings became a daily occurrence. Employees left the state to relocate but continued to work. We all bought multiple pairs…