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Joseph Beachboard

What does California’s new law mean for our dress and grooming policy?

11/16/2012

Q. We would like to enforce a strict dress and grooming code in our company. Are we required to exempt from our policy employees whose faiths call for them to dress or groom in a specific way?

Must we provide benefits during leave?

10/22/2012
Q. Are we required to continue to offer our employees benefits while they are out on leave?

What are California’s requirements for providing sexual harassment training?

10/22/2012

Q. We know that we are required to conduct sexual harassment training for our employees. But we’re not sure which of our employees we are required to train and what formats we can use to provide the training.

California enacts important new employment law legislation

10/22/2012
The 2012 session of the California Legislature resulted in passage and enactment of several important employment law bills, including inspection of personnel files, workers’ comp and religious dress and grooming.

Is it legal for us to restrict when employees may take small amounts of vacation time?

09/21/2012

Q. We recently needed to cut back on some of our employees’ shifts, meaning that some of them now work less than 40 hours per week. In order to bring their hours up to 40, these workers have been filling in their time sheets with varying amounts of their earned vacation. Are we permitted to restrict when our employees may use their earned vacation?

What is California’s law concerning leave for school-related activities?

09/21/2012

Q. With the start of the school year, several of our employees have asked to leave work early to attend parent orientation events at their child’s school. Are we obligated to grant employees time off for these events?

How should we pay for jury duty?

09/21/2012
Q. One of our employees received a jury duty summons. What are our obligations toward the employee in terms of pay and leave?

How must we accommodate breastfeeding?

08/21/2012

Q. One of our employees is on maternity leave. What are our obligations to accommodate her need to breastfeed when she returns to work?

How much flexibility do we have to set up alternative workweek schedules?

08/21/2012

Q. Our company employs nurses that care for patients in their homes. We would like to begin running 12-hour shifts and set up an alternative workweek schedule. What are the rules for instituting an alternative workweek for our employees?

Do tips count as pay for the purpose of calculating an employee’s overtime rate of pay?

07/24/2012
Q. Some of our employees receive tips from cus­­tomers. Do we need to include those tips when we calculate these employees’ rate of pay for purposes of paying them overtime?