The wage statement required by Labor Code section 226 need not separately list the hours worked and the hourly rate at which the employer makes contributions to an employer-union benefit trust based on the employee’s work. Read More
In a suit for discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, district courts have the discretion to “gross up” an award for back pay to account for income-tax consequences. Read More
In a wrongful termination suit, a plaintiff-employee cannot defeat an employer’s summary judgment motion by arguing that the employer’s pre-termination investigation could have been better or more comprehensive. Read More
An employer’s arbitration clause was denied enforcement as procedurally and substantively unconscionable because it was presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis and unduly limited both formal and informal discovery. Read More
Under the Labor Management Relations Act, a worker’s claim must be arbitrated if its resolution requires interpretation of the governing collective bargaining agreement; as here, where the worker’s waiting time penalty claim depended on whether his employment as a security guard was episodic or continuous. Read More
Under Labor Code 3744, the California Self-Insurers’ Security Fund may sue in court (not before the Workers Compensation Appeals Board) and recover workers compensation benefits paid on behalf of an insolvent self-insured temporary staffing agency from the agency’s customers who were the injured workers’ special employers. Read More
For purposes of the Labor Code's wage and hour protections for employees, taxi drivers are considered employees, since their employer can fire them for misconduct. Read More
Civil penalties may be recovered under the Private Attorney General Act without proving that the defendant employer’s failure to provide workers accurate, itemized pay statements was knowing and intentional. Read More
Plaintiff could not state a viable employment discrimination claim based on her supervisor’s actions favoring his co-employee wife, but plaintiff could state a viable whistleblower claim based on the supervisor’s retaliation for her complaining about his favoritism. Read More
While a police department could not legally discriminate against its employee police officers based on their ethnicity, it could legally take adverse employment action against them based on the race of the man they shot. Read More
Plaintiff, who was fired when his wife complained to his boss (who was also her mother) that plaintiff was armed, angry and on drugs, failed to state an actionable claim for discrimination based on marital status. Read More
The Ninth Circuit rejects the Department of Labor’s informal interpretation of the dual job limitation on tip credit against the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage; "two jobs" is determined by occupation, not individual tasks. Read More
A collective bargaining agreement explicitly requires arbitration of wage and hour claims by referencing a wage order; so long as a Private Attorney General Act claim survives, decertification of a class is not immediately appealable. Read More
Unionized prison guards’ pay is governed by the union’s memorandum of understanding, which was passed as state legislation, not general state wage and hour laws; but those general laws do apply to non-unionized prison workers. Read More
The Fair Employment and Housing Act’s one year statute of limitations starts to run from the date of termination of employment of a faculty member, rather than the earlier date on which he was denied tenure for allegedly discriminatory reasons. Read More
The trial court improperly granted summary judgment to employer defendant on employee plaintiff's claim of FEHA-prohibited retaliation for supporting a co-worker's complaint of sex discrimination, after she provided sufficient evidence of (1) adverse employment actions and (2) retaliatory motive. Read More
Suits under the Private Attorney Act are unlike class actions in that plaintiffs cannot belatedly add new plaintiffs to carry on the suit in place of the original named plaintiffs, if it turns out the original plaintiffs’ claims fail. Read More
Claims for statutory damages or penalties payable to individual employees are arbitrable; only Private Attorney General Act claims for civil penalties payable to the state are not arbitrable. Read More
In a Private Attorney General Act suit, the plaintiff is entitled, as a matter of course, to discovery of identification information of all employees affected by the employer’s alleged violations of wage and hour laws. Read More
When an employer's policy states that an employee does not begin to earn vacation pay until after a full year's employment, the employer does not owe an employee any vacation pay if employment is terminated less than a year after the date of initial employment. Read More
