Both during the height of the Covid pandemic and now in the aftermath, employers are increasingly reaching out to our Employment Group about employees who are demonstrating or reporting mental health problems. While some of these reports come with medically certified diagnoses, many do not, but all require a well-trained, compassionate and engaged response from…

Historically, employers were legally required to conduct an in-person inspection of I-9 Section 2 documents (e.g., an employee’s passport, driver’s license, and/or social security card) to verify an employee’s identity and eligibility to work in the United States. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its shelter-in-place mandate, on March 20, 2020, the Department of Homeland…

For several years, California’s COVID isolation guidelines have played a key role in “stopping the spread” in the workplace by requiring contagious employees to isolate at home. As of March 13, 2023, the California Department of Public Health has revised those guidelines. In alignment with CDC Recommendations for Isolation and Precautions for People with COVID-19,…

Brief Background On January 1, 2023, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) became applicable to the personal information of employees, job applicants, subcontractors, contractors, and others in work roles who are California residents (“Employee Personal Information”).  Since it went into effect on January 1, 2020, the CCPA (through a series of legislative actions)…

Mandatory Arbitration Agreements for Employees Are “On” Again…for Now. Once upon a time, before a certain virus captured all of our attention, the California legislature enacted Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51), which prohibits employers from requiring employees to consent to mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment. Many employers scrambled to revise their offer letters…

I recently shared commentary with SHRM regarding unpaid internships, including the legal considerations that employers should keep in mind. When are internships allowed to be unpaid and when they must be paid? The short answer is that so long as an intern is properly classified under the law as an intern, they do not have…

With 2023 here, it’s time for employers to comply with new California labor laws. Below is a highlight reel of these changes. What’s in a Name? Turns Out, Not Much: The Department of Fair Employment and Housing is Renamed the Civil Rights Department Effective July 1, 2022, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing…