By Frederick Dawkins and Douglas Weiner
Earlier this month, at the ABA Labor and Employment Law Conference, Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith reaffirmed that investigating independent contractors as misclassified remains a top priority of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) enforcement initiatives. The DOL will continue to work with other federal and state agencies, including the IRS, to share information and jointly investigate claims of worker misclassification. The joint enforcement effort is certainly driven by, among other things, an interest in ...
With Election Day tomorrow, employers must be prepared to respond to employees’ request for time off to vote. While there are no federal laws that require such leave, many states require that employees be provided with leave to vote. Some states, such as California, Maryland and New York, require this leave to be paid. Failing to comply with these requirements could result in financial penalties.
As illustrated below, state requirements vary greatly with regard to whether the leave must be paid, when employees are eligible for the leave, the length of the ...
By Michael Kun and Aaron Olsen
Agreeing with the recent federal district court opinion in our case Alonzo v. MAXIMUS, Inc., 832 F.Supp.2d 1122, 1126 (2011), the California Court of Appeals has confirmed in a case against See’s Candy that California employers may round employees’ time entries so long as the employer’s rounding policy does not consistently result in a failure to pay employees for time worked.
In Alonzo, a federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of our client MAXIMUS, Inc. on the plaintiffs’ time rounding claims. The Alonzo Court explained that ...
Kara M. Maciel, contributor to this blog and Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has released the "HR Guide for Responding to Natural Disasters." Following is an excerpt:
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes have posed unique human resource challenges for employers. While many employers are working around the clock on recovery efforts, other employers find themselves unable to function for extended periods of time because of damage or loss of utilities.
The economic effects of a natural disaster will have long-term consequences on businesses ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently confirmed that the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) does not prohibit an employer from modifying its workweek in order to avoid overtime costs. The Court’s ruling in Redline Energy confirms that employers are permitted to modify their workweeks as long as the change is intended to be permanent. Employers are not required to set forth a legitimate business reason for making the change and are permitted to do so solely for the purpose of reducing their overtime costs. The only requirement on ...
By: Kara M. Maciel
Hurricane Sandy is approaching this weekend, so employers along the East Coast should refresh themselves on the wage and hour issues arising from the possibility of missed work days in the wake of the storm.
A few brief points that all employers should be mindful of under the FLSA:
- A non-exempt employee generally does not have to be paid for weather-related absences. An employer may allow (or require) non-exempt employees to use vacation or personal leave days for such absences. But, if the employer has a collective bargaining agreement or handbook policies, the ...
By: Marisa Ratinoff
A federal judge takes on California's day of rest statutes and finds Nordstrom did not violate the California Labor Code where the plaintiffs voluntarily worked more then six days in a row. In Mendoza v. Nordstrom, the Central District Court played it as expected by denying the claims of two former Nordstrom employees holding that while an employer may not force an employee to work more than six consecutive days pursuant to Labor Code Sections 551 and 552, the employer will not be found liable where the employee chooses to waive his or her day of rest. Continuing the ...
By Michael Kun and Aaron Olsen
To the surprise of few, the California Supreme Court has decided to review the Court of Appeal’s decision enforcing a class action waiver in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC.
We wrote in detail about that decision on this blog earlier this year.
In reaching its conclusion, the Court of Appeals relied on the April 2011 United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion. Whether the California Supreme Court will follow Concepcion or attempt to distinguish it is impossible to predict. Unfortunately ...
EBG’s free wage-hour app, which allows users to access federal law and the laws of many states, has been updated to include Massachusetts law.
The app can be dowloaded here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1320249735
On September 19, 2012, several members of EBG’s Wage and Hour practice group will be presenting a briefing and webinar on FLSA compliance. In 2012, a record number of federal wage and hour lawsuits were filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), demonstrating that there is no end in sight to the number of class and collective actions filed against employers. Claims continue to be filed, raising issues of misclassification of employees, alleged uncompensated "work" performed off the clock, and miscalculation of overtime pay for non-exempt workers.
In this interactive ...
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- Employers in California: Don’t Forget That “Joint Employers” Are Not Vicariously Liable for Each Other’s Conduct
- Many State and Local Minimum Wages Increased on January 1, 2025
- California Court of Appeal Holds That Every PAGA Action Necessarily Includes an Individual PAGA Claim – and Plaintiffs With Arbitration Agreements Must Arbitrate Their Individual Claims First
- Time Is Money: A Quick Wage-Hour Tip on … California Meal and Rest Period Requirements, Revisited
- California Minimum Wage Will Still Increase Even Though Voters Rejected a Minimum-Wage Hike