On September 30, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 399. Starting January 1, employers are officially banned from holding captive audience meetings—mandatory employer-sponsored meetings that discuss religious or political matters—which are a common and accepted defense against union organizing.
Continue Reading Mandatory Captive Audience Meetings Are Banned in California in 2025
On the heels of California’s new indoor heat illness prevention standard becoming effective, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) announced a proposed national heat and injury illness prevention standard (“Proposed Rule”). The Proposed Rule covers indoor and outdoor workplaces where the heat index reaches 80°F or higher. Employers who wish to submit comments on the Proposed Rule have until December 30, 2024 to do so.
Continue Reading Comment Period Now Open for OSHA’s Proposed National Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Standard
On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed into law a bill that makes Massachusetts the 11th state to mandate pay transparency, joining California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.
Continue Reading Massachusetts Joins the Pay Transparency Game and Ups the Ante with New Reporting Requirements
In an effort to mitigate the risk of violence at work, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the New York Retail Worker Safety Act (RWSA) on September 5, 2024. The law introduces stringent workplace violence prevention measures for retail employers, including the establishment of a workplace violence prevention plan, training program, and the installation of a panic button.
Continue Reading Safety First for Retailers — New York Boosts Retail Safety with Mandatory Workplace Violence Prevention Plans, Annual Training Requirements and Panic Buttons
As we have previously reported, from the time President Biden took office, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) began systematically reversing Trump-era policy, and shifting toward pro-union and pro-employee policies. On August 22, 2024, the Board continued that push. This time taking steps to significantly impede the ability of employers to avoid unfair labor practice (“ULP”) charges without resorting to litigation.
Continue Reading NLRB Will No Longer Approve Employer Proposed Consent Orders
On August 15, 2024, the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly passed SB 399 by a vote of 10–3. The bill had passed the Senate in 2023 and has been with the Assembly since, waiting for action and a vote.
Continue Reading California Assembly Committee Revives State’s Captive Audience Meeting Ban
On July 26, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) issued its Fair Choice – Employee Voice Final Rule (“Final Rule”), which rescinds a trio of April 2020 amendments to the Board’s Rules and Regulations[1] affecting the Board’s processing of petitions that ultimately make it easier for unions to maintain recognition and stifles employee choice in whether to be represented by a union. With the final rule, the Board once again revives many pre-2020 Board policies.
Continue Reading The NLRB Implements Its Fair Choice – Employee Voice Final Rule – Effective September 30, 2024
Companies usually hire a foreign national who requires visa sponsorship because they cannot find a U.S. worker with those skill sets, which is frequently in the STEM fields. However, visa sponsorship comes with significant costs to the employer. Employers may be able to recover a portion of the immigration sponsorship fees by implementing what are called “clawback” provisions into their employment agreements. Clawback provisions are terms in the employment agreements that, in the event of a resignation by the employee before a certain date, require the employee to reimburse the employer for a portion of the costs or fees associated with his or
Continue Reading You Are Sponsoring a Foreign National Employee for Permanent Residency, Can You Clawback Some of the Fees?
As we previously reported here, nearly all health care facilities in California will soon be required to increase the minimum wage paid to health care workers, ranging anywhere from $18 per hour up to $23 per hour depending on the type of health care facility. The increased health care minimum wage was set to go into effect on June 1, 2024; however, on May 31, 2024, Governor Newsom signed SB 828, which provided for a one month delay, to July 1, 2024. Now, there is a further delay after Governor Newsom and state legislators came to an agreement to
Continue Reading Delay In California’s Minimum Wage Increase for Health Care Workers
On August 1, 2024, the California Supreme Court issued a decision in Turrieta v. Lyft that substantially narrows the authority of PAGA litigants to intervene in overlapping PAGA actions. The Supreme Court’s ruling confirms that the courts and the Labor & Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”) – and not competing PAGA litigants – have primary responsibility for providing oversight of PAGA settlements.
Continue Reading Intervening Authority: California Supreme Court Curbs the Authority of PAGA Litigants to Intervene in Overlapping PAGA Actions
A federal judge in Texas recently cast new doubt on the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) ability to oversee labor disputes, agreeing with SpaceX that the agency’s Board Members and Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are likely serving unconstitutionally.
Continue Reading Texas Judge Enjoins NLRB From Proceeding Against SpaceX, Casting Further Doubt on NLRB’s Constitutionality
California’s new “Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment” standard is now in effect as of July 23, 2024. The new regulation applies to most California workplaces where the indoor temperature reaches 82°F or higher (e.g., warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, and restaurants). The standard requires those employers to implement a written indoor heat illness prevention plan that includes procedures for accessing water and cool-down areas, acclimatization, training employees, and emergency response measures. Covered employers who have not already drafted and implemented their plan should do so immediately.
Continue Reading California’s New Heat Illness Prevention Standard for Indoor Workplaces Is Now Effective
On July 9, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit told the National Labor Relations Board’s to reconsider the standard for whether abusive or inappropriate speech is protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. In so doing, the Fifth Circuit vacated the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Lion Elastomers, LLC (Lion II), 372 NLRB No. 83 (2023), and reinstated the standard in General Motors, LLC (GM), 369 NLRB No. 127 (2020).
Continue Reading The NLRB Must Apply Its Prior Standard for Protected Employee Outbursts and Abusive Speech
Amidst a wave of non-compete bans sweeping California, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota and, most recently, the nation via the Federal Trade Commission’s non-compete prohibition, Maine Governor Janet Mills departed from this growing trend and vetoed L.D. 1496, An Act To Prohibit Noncompete Clauses (“L.D. 1496”) in April 2024. If enacted, the L.D. 1496 would have effectively foreclosed employers from entering into non-compete clauses with employees in Maine.
Continue Reading Maine Governor’s Veto of Non-Compete Ban Bucks Growing Trend Among States and Federal Trade Commission
On March 12, 2024, the Ninth Circuit published a decision in Ortiz v. Randstad Inhouse Services, LLC, holding that the Plaintiff Adan Ortiz (“Plaintiff”) qualified as a “transportation worker” under the Federal Arbitration Act, and was thus exempted from mandatory arbitration under the FAA. The district court rejected the employer’s arguments that Plaintiff was bound by the arbitration mandate under the FAA because he performed duties on a purely local basis. This case continues to establish that the scope of the “transportation worker” exemption under the FAA is broader than only those workers that physically move goods or people across
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Finds Shipping Warehouse Employee Qualified as Exempt “Transportation Worker” Under the Federal Arbitration Act
As previously discussed, on June 18, 2024, California’s political leaders announced a tentative deal to reform a number of aspects of California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). On June 27, 2024, the PAGA reform bills, Senate Bill 92 and Assembly Bill 2288, were approved by the California Legislature and on July 1, 2024, Governor Newsom signed both bills into law. The PAGA reform bills contain urgency clauses such that the bills take effect upon signing. Both bills explicitly apply only to PAGA claims filed on or after June 19, 2024, or those PAGA claims for which the required notice
Continue Reading A Closer Look: Unpacking California’s Landmark PAGA Legislation