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On April 30, 2018, the California courts rocked the State’s labor and employment landscape with the decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (“Dynamex”). The court’s decision changed the way employers classified independent contractors from the longstanding Borello test (an eleven-factor test with no single factor being determinative of a workers’ classification) to the much stricter “ABC” test.
On July 3, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsome signed into law the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair.) While New York City recently became the first locality to enact such legislation, California is the first to ban natural hair discrimination statewide.
U.S. Women's Soccer Team Seeks Win for Equal Pay as They Pursue World Cup Title
June 27, 2019 • Adam L. Parry
Category: Legal Updates
The U.S. Women’s National Team is on track to defend its 2015 World Cup title after defeating Spain in the Round of 16 on June 24. They’re the favorite in their upcoming quarter-final match against France on June 27. Away from the pitch, they face another battle: in March, members of the team filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Los Angeles, seeking equal pay under the Equal Pay Act and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act.
Last month New York Governor Cuomo approved amendments to the state’s election laws that provide employees with up to three hours of paid leave on election days. In order to qualify, employees must be registered to vote and must give their employers two days’ notice of their intent to take election leave.
California Employers at Risk for Retaliation, Take Note
June 11, 2019 • Shirley A. Gauvin
Category: Legal Updates
If there is one thing worse than sexual harassment in the workplace, it’s retaliation against a victim of harassment as a result of reporting harassment. Existing law in California prohibits an employer from terminating, discriminating or retaliating against an employee because of the employee’s status as a victim of sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking (Labor Code, Section 230). Assembly Bill-171 (presented by Gonzalez, D-San Diego) seeks to broaden the protections for such victims by providing a “rebuttable presumption” of unlawful retaliation if an employer within 90 days following either the date when the victim provides notice to the employer or when the employer has actual knowledge of the status, discharges, threatens to discharge, demotes, suspends, or takes any other adverse action against the victim-employee. “Harassment” in this context means sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
We are proud to announce the release of our latest Quarterly Newsletter, which may be found here.
Our newsletter summarizes key developments in the employment law arena on a quarterly basis, with a focus on how these developments may impact the hospitality industry and your operations. As you may have noticed, the legal landscape changes on a far more frequent basis than four times a year. So, when a particularly significant development occurs, we immediately publish a “Legal Alert” and make it available to each of our clients and subscribers. If you would like to stay abreast of legal developments in real-time, and receive our legal updates in a more timely fashion, we invite you to follow us on Instagram @stokeswagner.
In January 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California would soon be expanding its Paid Family Leave (PFL) program. That promise has come to fruition in the May revisions to Governor Newsom’s budget released earlier this month.
As spring starts to turn into summer, increases to city and state minimum wages are steadily approaching. Employers should take the time now to ensure that they are ready for minimum wage increases scheduled for July 1, 2019.
Stokes Wagner Obtains Defense Award in Race Discrimination Arbitration
May 15, 2019 • Adam L. Parry
Category: Press Releases
The Stokes Wagner team has defeated claims of discrimination, harassment and wage violations against the storied Beverly Hills Hotel. The claimant was a former employee of The Beverly Hills Hotel Logo Shop who was terminated for cause. She alleged that during her employment, she was subject to rampant use of racial slurs, including the “N-Word,” by Hotel management and fellow employees. She also claimed that she suffered from race-based favoritism and that she was ultimately terminated because of her race. She also claimed that the Hotel failed to provide her with required rest breaks and to pay her for all hours worked. Claimant sought damages for lost income, emotional distress, unpaid wages, related penalties, and attorneys’ fees.
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. District for the District of Columbia issued an opinion reinstating the EEOC’s collection of pay data as part of the EEO-1 Report filing. The revised EEO-1 form was an Obama-era change that would have required employers with 100 or more employees to report W-2 wage information and total hours worked for all employees by race, ethnicity and sex within 12 proposed pay bands. The pay data collection requirement was originally slated to go into effect on March 31, 2018 but was stalled after the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) stayed the implementation of the pay data collection portions of the revised EEO-1 Report.