“What’s in a name?” That was the question asked by the California Court of Appeal in Noori v. Countrywide Payroll & HR Solutions, Inc. (2019) 43 Cal. App. 5th 957, 964. California Labor Code Section 226(a)(8) requires employers to provide wage statements that list “the name and address of the legal entity that is the […]
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Individual Liability under California Labor Code section 558.1: Some guidance from the courts of appeal
Until relatively recently, an employee could not recover damages for unpaid wages and other wage and hour violations from an individual owner or officer of the employer unless the employee could prove some other legal basis for liability such as alter ego liability. However, alter ego liability is generally difficult to prove and has been […]
Read more...Independent Contractor or Employee? Why It Matters
In 2018, the California Supreme Court adopted the ABC Test for determining whether workers are independent contractors in the seminal case of Dynamex Operations W., Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. That test, generally speaking, is more favorable for workers because it requires hiring entities to prove that a worker (A) is free […]
Read more...Is Your Employer Paying You Properly for Missed Meal and Rest Breaks? Only If it Includes Nondiscretionary Pay in Your Regular Rate of Compensation.
The California Supreme Court has clarified that employers must include both hourly wages and all nondiscretionary payments when calculating the regular rate of pay for the purposes of compensating employees for missed meal and rest periods. See Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC (2021) 11 Cal.5th 858. The Court further held that this decision applies […]
Read more...A Win for Workers in the Fourth District Court of Appeal
The attorneys at Hunter Pyle Law (HPL), along with co-counsel Feinberg, Jackson, Worthman & Wasow (FJWW) recently received a favorable decision from the Fourth District Court of Appeal in a case called Uribe v. Crown Building Maintenence Co. (September 30, 2021, Case No. G057836). HPL and FJWW represent Isabel Garibay, a worker who intervened in […]
Read more...Immigration Status Discrimination is Prohibited under California Employment Law
California law provides that employment law protections are extended to all workers “regardless of immigration status.” Cal Civ. Code § 3339. Furthermore, under California law, “a person’s immigration status is irrelevant to the issue of liability” and in a proceeding to enforce a person’s employment rights, “no inquiry shall be permitted into a person’s immigration […]
Read more...Pay for Reporting Time under California Law: Do On-Call Shifts Count?
California law requires employers to pay employees for “reporting time” under the following circumstances: (1) when employees are required to report for work, (2) do report but (3) are either not put to work or provided less than half of their usual daily shift or scheduled shift. See Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”) Wage Orders 1-16, Section 5; […]
Read more...PAGA and Manageability: Some Lessons Learned from Wesson v. Staples
On September 9, 2021, in Wesson v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC (Cal. Ct. App., Sept. 9, 2021, No. B302988) 2021 WL 4099059, Division 4 of the Second District Court of Appeal addressed an important question of first impression: whether trial courts have the authority to ensure that claims brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act […]
Read more...Minimum Wage, Public Employees, and the University of California
The University of California (referred to in this post as “the Regents”) employs more than two hundred thousand people. Determining which laws apply to the Regents can be challenging. Gomez v. Regents (2021) 63 Cal.App.5th 386 provides some guidance with respect to California’s wage and hour laws. In Gomez, the plaintiff challenged the Regents’ policy […]
Read more...New Attorneys Fees Provision Should Apply Retroactively to Pending Whistleblower Cases
California’s whistleblower law, Labor Code section 1102.5, helps discourage employers from retaliating against employees who report unlawful activity in the workplace. It’s an important law because it safeguards other rights and privileges afforded to employees. Last fall, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 1947, an amendment to Section 1102.5. The new Labor Code […]
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