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Employment Law

Should we use arbitration agreements to help resolve employment disputes?

12/03/2013
In California, companies adopting arbitration agreements face a number of difficult decisions in crafting their agreements to ensure that they will be enforceable while also maximizing the benefits of arbitration.

2 employment law bills fall to Gov. Brown’s veto pen

12/03/2013
Gov. Jerry Brown recently vetoed two laws affecting employee rights.

New Calif. wage-and-hour legislation increases employer obligations

12/03/2013
California employers must begin complying with several new wage-and-hour laws enacted in recent weeks. Recent legislation provides overtime pay for domestic workers, mandates more pay for missed “cool-down” breaks, increases damages for minimum wage violations and adds other employer obligations.

Ignore an overtime lawsuit, hand a win to workers

12/03/2013
Can’t convince management that they shouldn’t ignore an overtime lawsuit? Share this horror story.

When contesting timeliness of lawsuit filing, remember to factor in weekends, holidays

12/03/2013

Employees have just 90 days from the date they receive an EEOC right-to-sue letter to file a federal discrimination lawsuit. However, 90 days isn’t as straightforward a deadline as it might seem.

Service-related health problem seems minor? Employee might still have ADA disability claim

12/03/2013
Ordinarily, the ADA doesn’t protect employees who have temporary physical problems that don’t last long or seriously interfere with their lives. But ailments and conditions that last indefinitely are another matter. That’s especially true for a veteran who the VA has rated as partially disabled by service-related injuries.

Get expert help with arbitration agreements

12/03/2013
If there is an area of the law that remains confusing for ­employers, it’s arbitration agreements. Here’s the latest twist in the legal saga of what’s a good agreement and what’s not.

Received EEOC subpoena? Respond now!

12/03/2013
Here’s an important warning: If the EEOC mails your company a subpoena for information about a pending investigation, you have just days to object—or you’ll lose the right to do so. That’s why you absolutely need a clear process for immediately getting the subpoena to your attorney.

Warn employees: Text messages may be evidence

12/02/2013

Text messages make communication easy and convenient, but casual comments dashed off electronically may come back to haunt you. That’s why you should remind employees that texts should be composed with the same careful deliberation as letters and memos.

5th Circuit adds confusion to OT in misclassification cases

12/02/2013
It just got more complicated to calculate the overtime pay you owe a misclassified employee. In Black v. SettlePou P.C., the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court’s ruling concerning the proper methodology for calculating damages when an employee is misclassified as exempt.