Articles Discussing General Workplace Issues in California.

California courts have been busy since the start of the new year issuing decisions that affect employers with California employees. Here’s an update on the most significant of these decisions and how they impact employers and their policies and practices.

On February 25, 2019, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced Senate Bill 561, legislation intended to strengthen and clarify the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was enacted in June of 2018. If enacted, this would be the second amendment to the CCPA, following an earlier amendment in September of 2018 that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1121, which also clarified and strengthened the original version of the law.

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The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 2785 has filed a petition for review to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) determination that California’s meal and rest break rules are preempted as applied to drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) subject to the FMCSA’s hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. This primarily involves interstate truck drivers and some intrastate drivers who meet certain criteria under the HOS regulations who drive CMVs. The Teamsters are seeking to reverse the Agency’s administrative determination.

Data privacy and security regulation is growing rapidly around the world, including in the United States. In addition to strengthening the requirements to secure personal data, individuals are being given an increasing array of rights concerning the collection, use, disclosure, sale, and processing of their personal information.

Happy Data Privacy Day from the Jackson Lewis Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity Team!

In 2018, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County) establishing a new standard (“ABC test”) for determining whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee in the context of claims brought under the State’s Industrial Welfare Commission’s wage orders. The result is a broader definition of who qualifies as an employee for the purpose of a claim brought under a wage order.

The opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are creating for the labor market are gaining increasing attention in both policy circles and society at large. The creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, whose members are expected to be announced early this year, is intended to “prepare Americans for the 21st century economy and the emerging industries of the future” in light of the rapid changes that “technology, automation, and artificial intelligence” are generating. These changes are expected to arrive soon. Kai-Fu Lee, a Chinese venture capitalist, recently predicted on 60 Minutes that AI could displace up to 40% of the world’s jobs within the next 15 years.

Happy New Year! As we turn the calendar to 2019, employers across the country are taking stock of recently-enacted workplace regulations on a wide variety of topics.1

It’s a new year, and California SDI benefits will be increasing. The SDI withholding rate continues to be 1.0% of wages. But, the taxable wage limit will increase from $114,967 to $118,371.

Developing a paid sick and safe time (PSST) policy that complies universally – or at the very least with two laws – has become increasingly challenging. Without fail, and despite some overlap, each new law seems to contain one provision that could interfere with the goal of establishing uniform practices.

In this podcast, Bruce Sarchet and Corinn Jackson, both with Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute, survey numerous wide-sweeping changes affecting California employers in 2019.

For decades, American employers have used the legally endorsed policy of rounding employees’ time to the nearest quarter hour. This has always been permissible, provided the policy was neutral in effect, meaning that on balance employees were not underpaid as a result. Back in the days not so long ago when payroll was calculated by scribes in green visors and sharp pencils, rounding made perfect sense, as trying to pay to the minute when someone on a 9:00 am – 5:00 pm shift clocks in a 8:57 am (so as not to violate the punctuality policy) and doesn’t leave their work station until 5:00 (again to not violate policy) and clocks out at 5:05, would have been far more cumbersome. So rounding to the nearest quarter hour was permitted, provided “it all comes out even in the wash” so as not to deprive employees, on balance, of time worked.

The California Supreme Court has upheld the ability of California health care workers who work more than twelve hours a day voluntarily to waive their second meal period, rebuffing plaintiffs’ argument that their voluntary waivers were unenforceable. (Gerard v. Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (Dec. 10, 2018) Case No. S241655.)

On November 28, 2018, the California Business & Industrial Alliance (an association that represents the interests of small and mid-sized businesses in California and which was formed for the specific purpose of accomplishing the appeal or reform of the Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”)) filed a lawsuit against Xavier Becerra in his official capacity as the Attorney General for the State of California for injunctive and declaratory relief in the Orange County Superior Court.