Employers seeking to move workplace claims from the courthouse to arbitration received some good news Friday from the U.S. Supreme Court. If a trial court denies a party’s request to compel arbitration, the court must pause...more
6/26/2023
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Coinbase ,
Coinbase Inc v Bielski ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Electronic Fund Transfer Act ,
Motion to Compel ,
SCOTUS ,
Unconscionable Contracts
Employers that face lawsuits from employees often seek to move such claims from the courthouse to arbitration. But what happens if the trial court refuses to compel arbitration and the employer appeals the decision? Should...more
5/15/2023
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Coinbase ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Electronic Fund Transfer Act ,
Motion to Compel ,
Oral Argument ,
SCOTUS ,
Unconscionable Contracts
Employers that face lawsuits from employees often seek to move such claims from the courthouse to arbitration. But what happens if the trial court refuses to compel arbitration and the employer appeals the decision? Should...more
The hyper-technical nature of California’s wage statement laws, embodied in Labor Code section 226, have made violations of this law a favorite of the plaintiffs’ bar for class and representative actions under the Private...more
The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a landmark bill that aims to amend several federal laws to prohibit discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Equality Act, passed on February 25...more
The long-fought bag-check battle against Apple is coming to an end, and the employee class just won a major victory in California when a federal court of appeals ruled that the company must pay its workers for the time spent...more
Supreme Court decisions are often the most challenging pieces of legal guidance to understand. They are rarely straightforward and usually contain so much analysis that it becomes hard to get to the bottom of what was...more
8/10/2020
/ ADEA ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Babb v Wilkie ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Comcast Corp. v National Association of African American-Owned Media ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Confidential Information ,
Contraceptive Coverage Mandate ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security v Regents of the University of California ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma ,
LGBTQ ,
Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v Pennsylvania ,
Ministerial Exception ,
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru ,
Race Discrimination ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Religious Institutions ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Trade Secrets ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
In Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek says “The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.” And anyone who has managed employees can appreciate that varying...more
In a 6-to-3 vote yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination because of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity — including being transgender — is unlawful discrimination “because of...more
6/16/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that closed hundreds of thousands of business around the country is unprecedented. Fortunately, many retailers were able to maintain a fairly high level of continuity as essential businesses...more
4/24/2020
/ Attendance ,
Business Closures ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health and Safety ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Poor Job Performance ,
Public Health ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retailers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
Many sectors of the retail industry are critical to the nation’s efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19. After all, retailers that sell necessities such as food, medication, personal care products, and household supplies...more
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court just held that the time spent by employees waiting for and undergoing security checks of bags and other personal items is compensable time under California law, even when...more
2/15/2020
/ Apple ,
Bright-Line Rule ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Litigation ,
Integrity Staffing v Busk ,
Security Checks ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Orders
In a unanimous decision late last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals resuscitated class claims against retail giants Nike and Converse that allege employees are owed compensation for time spent undergoing security checks...more
By a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Federal Arbitration Act does not allow a court to compel class arbitration when the agreement does not clearly provide for it. As a result, employers whose valid...more
4/25/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Arbitration ,
Consent ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Jurisdiction ,
Lamps Plus Inc v Varela ,
Motion to Compel ,
Preemption ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS
Human trafficking is the fastest-growing organized crime business and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world. And lawmakers have taken notice.
The California legislature in particular has been active in passing...more
Any avid watcher of medical dramas would tell you that a hospital always has the ability to cut ties with any doctor who is not up to snuff. (For podcast fans we highly recommend Dr. Death.) They would tell you this is...more
2/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Best Practices ,
Business & Professions Code ,
Damages ,
Due Process ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hospitals ,
Lost Earnings ,
Medical Errors ,
Medical Malpractice ,
Notice Requirements ,
Patient Safety ,
Peer Review ,
Physicians ,
Professional Disciplinary Actions ,
Quality of Care Standards ,
Work Suspensions
This past summer, in a high-profile case brought against Starbucks, the California Supreme Court resolved an open question concerning compensable time. Or, at least it did to some extent.
The court held that California...more
10/2/2018
/ CA Supreme Court ,
De Minimis Claims ,
De Minimus Doctrine ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Off-The-Clock ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Retailers ,
Starbucks ,
Timekeeping ,
Wage and Hour
As anyone who has spent a weekend binging an entire season of Stranger Things or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel can tell you, society’s consumption of television has shifted dramatically in the last several years. Discovering...more
To the relief of employers across the country, the Supreme Court today ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements do not violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and are,...more
5/21/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Employment Contract ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Ernst & Young v Morris ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Murphy Oil v NLRB ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Opt-Outs ,
SCOTUS
In 2017, we saw how women across the globe have been using the gig economy as a means of gaining some financial independence. A recent report by the Overseas Development Institute even explored how the gig economy is...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While it always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, the last few months have seen an unprecedented number of changes. May 2017 was no different, with...more
6/5/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
American Health Care Act (AHCA) ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Day of Rest Laws ,
E-Verify ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Workweek ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Food Service Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Immigration Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Legislation ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
On-Call Employees ,
OSHA ,
Paid Leave ,
Parental Leave ,
Popular ,
Portable Benefits ,
Repeal ,
Retail Workers ,
Sick Leave ,
Travel Ban ,
Trump Administration ,
Work Schedules
Though the internet has been in our lives for decades and online retailers are hardly a new concept, many brick-and-mortar retailers continue to evaluate the risks and benefits of moving away from the shop on the corner and...more
In an unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court held today that California’s law requiring one day of rest in seven looks only at the employer’s defined workweek when determining the applicable period of time to be...more
The U.S. Supreme Court held today in a 6 to 2 decision that “structured dismissals” resolving Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings cannot deviate from the Bankruptcy Code’s priority scheme without the consent of the affected...more
3/23/2017
/ Absolute Priority Rule ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Czyzewski v Jevic Holding Corp ,
Priority Debt ,
Priority Rules ,
SCOTUS ,
Structured Dismissals ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act
On Friday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to extend Title VII’s protections to sexual orientation discrimination, but reinforced that employees may allege sex discrimination claims when they face workplace...more
3/15/2017
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Split of Authority ,
Title VII