Employment Contracts and Agreements

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When people begin to think about cool weather, hot chocolate, Thanksgiving, and this year the constant announcements about El Niño, only one thing always comes to my mind……..

Employer Handbook Season! 

Yes, the end of the year always brings a flurry of revisions to employer handbooks.  This year is no different.  Business owners, general counsel, and human resources professionals throughout California and the County always look at Q4 and ask themselves “when was the last time your employee handbook was updated?”  We are assisting many clients right now with their handbooks so that they are poised for a January 1 launch. With the constant changes in California (including the dozens of new bills just signed by the Governor), employer handbooks that are more than a year old can quickly become a huge liability.
Continue Reading The Three “H”s of Fall: Halloween, Hot Chocolate, and Handbooks

Sunday, October 11, 2015 was the deadline for the Governor to act on bills that were passed by the legislature.

There were two bills the Governor rejected that are seen as key victories for employers.  They are:

AB 465 was vetoed. This bill sought to bar mandatory employment arbitration agreements.  This would have caused lawsuits…

On August 31st, the California Legislature passed a new bill (AB 465) to ensure that waivers of employment rights and procedures, often through arbitration agreements, are made voluntarily and not as a condition of obtaining or keeping employment. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, the number of companies using arbitration agreements in the workplace…

A California Labor Commissioner has ruled that one of San Francisco-based Uber’s drivers, Barbara Ann Berwick, is an employee, not an independent contractor. The Labor Commissioner awarded Berwick just over $4,000 for incurred but un-reimbursed business expenses and interest. On a positive note, the Commissioner denied Berwick’s request for wages, liquidated damages, and waiting time penalties.Shauna Correia.standing

Traditionally, it is the “right to control” the means and manner of work that is the primary element of the independent contractor test. Here, though, the Labor Commissioner did not rely on the right to control.  Instead, she noted that the absence of such control is not necessarily dispositive where the actual details of the work required little or no supervision.  
Continue Reading Former Uber Driver Gets a Lyft from the Labor Commissioner

Summary of Program

The risks involved in misclassifying a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee have always been serious. A number of federal and state agencies regulate the proper classification of workers and have the authority to impose significant monetary and non-monetary sanctions against employers who  get the classification wrong.

Program Highlights…