Photo of Beth V. West

Beth V. West

Subscribe to Beth V. West's Posts

Beth is a Shareholder and Chair of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Group. She is admitted to practice law in California and Washington. She has years of experience assisting employers in all aspects of their employment relationship with their employees. Her practice focuses on counseling and training employers, HR professionals, and managers.

Follow:Read more about Beth V. WestLizabeth's Linkedin Profile

BethWestBlogThe United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Ins. v. Busk on December 9, 2014 and reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in a much awaited wage and hour decision concerning the issue of “compensable time” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

The facts of the case are very straight forward.  Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. (“Integrity”) required its hourly non-exempt ware­house workers (who retrieved products from warehouse shelves and packaged them for delivery to Amazon.com customers), to undergo a security screening before leaving the warehouse each day.  A number of former employees sued Integrity alleging, in part, that they were entitled to compensation under the FLSA for the roughly 25 minutes each day that they spent waiting to undergo and undergoing those screenings. The employees also alleged that the company could have reduced that time to a de minimis amount by adding screeners or staggering shift terminations and that the screenings were conducted to prevent employee theft and, thus, for the sole benefit of the company and its customers.
Continue Reading VICTORY FOR EMPLOYERS…. The U.S. Supreme Court Holds that Employees are Not Entitled to Compensation for Time Spent Going through Employer’s Security Screening

While Governor Brown hailed the Legislature on August 30, 2014 for its passage of the new Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act” (Assembly Bill 1522) our prior post was incorrect when it stated that he signed the new bill into law on August 30th.  In fact, the Governor signed the new bill into law…

On August 30, 2014, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 1152 into law and said “tonight, the Legislature took historic action to help hardworking Californians. This bill guarantees that millions of workers — from Eureka to San Diego — won’t lose their jobs or pay just because they get sick.”

The new law is called the…

In Lupyan v. Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a FMLA interference lawsuit, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment in favor of the employer when the employee claimed she never received an FMLA designation letter that her employer claims it mailed to her. The Court essentially held that if an employer wishes to…