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Shauna Correia.standingIn a time where employees are using personal devices and cell phones for work, and employers permit employees to use computer and phone systems for “incidental” personal reasons, confusion can arise over who owns the devices or the information transmitted over the device. This confusion can create liability and potential problems for employers, such as whether an employer is obligated to pay for any part of an employee’s personal phone, and what devices and information must be provided by the employer in a lawsuit. Please join us for an informative overview of the potential dangers and strategies employers may be able to use to help manage these pitfalls and risks.

About Our Speaker

Shauna Correia | Weintraub Tobin

Shauna Correia is of counsel in the firm’s Labor & Employment and Litigation groups. Shauna is licensed to practice in state and federal court in both California and Nevada. Her employment practice focuses on the defense of employers against wrongful termination, wage and hour, discrimination, intentional tort, civil rights, and leave law claims. She is an accomplished negotiator and experienced trial attorney. She also drafts and negotiates executive employment, partnership and shareholder agreements and reviews and revises employee handbooks and policies. In addition to litigating and negotiating resolution of active disputes, many of Shauna’s clients rely on her for her advisory and risk-management capacities, and her ability to find ways to reduce exposure or avoid litigation.
Continue Reading SEAC Webinar: Yours, Mine and Ours: Legal Issues Surrounding Personal and Employer Property

Recently, my Alma Mater, The University of Southern California, was sued by a former member of the Trojan football team.  Former cornerback Brian Baucham filed a lawsuit against USC and former coach Lane Kiffin, alleging he suffered permanent injuries after being forced to play in a game while he was ill.  Baucham’s lawsuit claimed that he was “forced by Coach Kiffin to play a home game even though Mr. Baucham was very ill and diagnosed by the USC Health Clinic with an influenza-like illness, viral pharyngitis and dehydration.”  After playing in a game against Berkeley, “Baucham suffered from cardiopulmonary damage, as well as brain injury with neurocognitive deficits,” according to the lawsuit.  Baucham alleges that USC and Kiffin violated both the NCAA and USC injury protocol programs when they forced him to play.

This got me to thinking: Now that the National Labor Relations Board has found that scholarship football players are employees under the NLRA, what if Mr. Baucham filed suit against USC as an employee?
Continue Reading Why Employers Should Think Twice Before Making Employees Play Hurt

LaborEmpSeminarLogoSummary of Program

Most employers know that it is crucial to have well trained supervisors to help ensure that rank and file employees perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.  However, many employers don’t realize how important it is that supervisors be trained to understand the many employment laws that govern the workplace.  Untrained supervisors can take actions (or fail to take actions) that result in significant legal consequences for an employer.  Come join the employment lawyers at Weintraub Tobin for a discussion of best practices for training supervisors and reducing the potential for liability.

Program Highlights

  • An overview of employment laws that impact the workplace and common mistakes supervisors make when they don’t understand those laws.
  • Tips for effective communication between supervisors and employees, including how to give constructive performance feedback.
  • Common supervisor mistakes when hiring and firing.
  • The importance of consistent, objective, and timely discipline.
  • Preventing and responding to harassment and other Equal Employment Opportunity complaints.
  • Documentation:  The good, the bad and the ugly.

Continue Reading Upcoming Seminar: Well Trained Supervisors – Your First Line of Defense

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review California high court’s landmark decision in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, which held that arbitration agreements with mandatory class waivers are generally enforceable, but carved out an exception for the state’s Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) claims.

As discussed in our prior blog post, The…

Brenden Begley_retouchMany employers have arbitration agreements wherein employees agree to waive the right to file a lawsuit against the employer under various laws, including the California’s Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”).  Employers were disappointed when the California Supreme Court ruled last June that such waivers of PAGA lawsuits are invalid, at least in state court.  See Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal.4th 348 (2014).

However, a number of federal trial judges in the Golden State subsequently disagreed and ruled that PAGA waivers are enforceable in their courts.  See, e.g., Ortiz v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., E.D. Cal. Case No. 2:13-cv-01619 (Sept. 30, 2014).  Because a PAGA waiver still may be enforceable against an employee in federal court, many employers have either kept or inserted such waivers in their arbitration agreements.

This week it became apparent that including a PAGA waiver may destroy an employer’s ability to require arbitration in any type of lawsuit, be it under PAGA or some other theory (e.g., alleged discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or wage-and-hour or meal-and-rest-period violations).  Specifically, the California Court of Appeal ruled that a PAGA waiver will invalidate an entire arbitration agreement in state court if that agreement also includes a non-severability clause.  See Montano v. The Wet Seal Retail, Inc., Cal. Ct. App. Case No. B244107 (Jan. 7, 2015).
Continue Reading The New PAGA-Waiver Trap Door