Labor & Employment

Following Kim v. Reins Internat. California, Inc. (2020) 9 Cal.5th 73, this decision holds that the fact that the plaintiff's individual claim is time-barred does not prevent him from bringing a PAGA action to collect civil penalties as to the employer's Labor Code violations as to other employees within the limitations period.  Lab. Code 2699(c) requires only that the plaintiff… Read More

Like several other decisions, this one concludes that later U.S. Supreme Court opinions have not overruled or cast doubt on Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC (2014) 59 Cal.4th 348.  It remains true that an employer cannot compel an employee to arbitrate a PAGA claim and that the FAA does not preempt that rule. Read More

Under Parker Drilling Management Services, Ltd. v. Newton (2019) 139 S.Ct. 1881, state law supplements federal law governing matters on the outer continental shelf only to the extent that there is a gap in federal law.  If federal law already addresses the issue, it excludes state law.  This decision holds that the FLSA addresses the issue of meal and rest… Read More

If an employer fails to give its employee the required 10-minute rest breaks or 30-minute meal break, it owes the employee an hour's premium pay calculated at the employee's "regular rate of compensation." Lab. Code 226.7(c). This decision holds that "regular rate of compensation" has the same meaning than "regular rate of pay" used to compute overtime compensation. Lab. Code… Read More

In a case involving a retaliatory firing of a deputy fire marshal, the appellate court affirms the judgment finding the defendant city liable, but reverses the award of $2 million for past noneconomic damages and $1.5 million in future noneconomic damages as excessive given the slight evidence of emotional distress, the fact that plaintiff found other employment, the fact that… Read More

An employee who had complained about his supervisor, was terminated and then claimed retaliation for his whistleblowing was not required to exhuast his administrative remedies before the employer's human relations commission because the commission's decision would have been subject to review and change by the supervisor in consultation with the mayor.  To have the personally involved supervisor (who had been… Read More

This decision affirms a judgment holding that Certified Tire's method of compensating its technicians did not violate California's wage & hour laws.  The compensation formula gave each technician a base salary rate that was above the minimum wage but allowed the technician to increase his hourly rate by performing more production work that customers paid for during the work week. … Read More

Employer sued the union and its workers for RICO violations, claiming that the workers and the union had conspired to fraudulently furnish timesheets reporting hours that were not actually worked, causing employer to overpay the workers by $5.3 million.  Over a strong dissent, this opinion holds that the suit is preempted by section 301 of the LMRA because the collective… Read More

Distinguishing Alvarado v. Dart Container Corp. of California (2018) 4 Cal.4th 542, this decision holds that in calculating the "regular rate of pay" for overtime work by a "dual rate" employee, the employer is not required to use the weighted average method of computing regular rate of pay but may instead calculate regular rate of pay by using the rate-in-effect… Read More

CCP 527.8(o) allows a respondent in a workplace harassment injunction action one mandatory continuance in which to respond to the petition.  This decision holds that when the respondent has already filed a written response to the petition, 527.8(o) is inapplicable, and the respondent is not entitled to a continuance of the injunction hearing absent a showing of good cause under… Read More