Articles Posted in Employment

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AdobeStock_398358954-300x200Most businesses in California have confidential and valuable information to protect. Ensuring its protection is often a vital priority. In the ordinary course of business, companies will enter into numerous consulting agreements, service agreements and strategic alliances. These agreements are best made with the advice of a Los Angeles employment attorney who can help protect proprietary information by drafting enforceable non-disclosure agreements.

NDAs and best practices

The proper use of NDAs and noncompete clauses is to protect your company’s valuable proprietary information. NDAs can be used to safeguard trade secrets, and this is their preferred mode of operation. Nonetheless, if your company wants to protect trade secrets, you must show that you made some effort to protect those secrets. Informing hires that they will have access to proprietary trade secrets and signing an agreement not to divulge those trade secrets makes the effort enforceable and shows your company took measures to protect their intellectual property.

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AdobeStock_507078931-300x169In the twenty-first century, information is power. Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges in the race to create, maintain and protect information. These challenges have become painfully obvious in recent years. Business owners have had to move their operations to an entirely remote format while still maintaining cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has been breached in multiple brazen attacks against some of the country’s largest companies. Information security can no longer be taken for granted by any successful business. The key to success starts with the right human infrastructure within your organization. The right Chief Information Officer can protect your company’s confidential client information, intellectual property, and trade secrets to prevent the legal liability and bad publicity that comes with a data breach.

How Corporate Information Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The global economy has become increasingly interconnected in the early twenty-first. Business moved online as companies have expanded their reach across the world. For most companies, however, these online operations were merely supplemental to a workforce that primarily operated in person. All of that changed with the coronavirus pandemic. Suddenly, businesses were forced to move their operations entirely online if they wanted to survive. Data had to be secured to allow employees to work remotely via Zoom, Skype, WebEx, Facetime, and other video conferencing services. Two+ years into the pandemic, it seems clear that remote work will become more and more popular in the years to come. Businesses must find a way to facilitate this major change while ensuring the security of their data.

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AdobeStock_503784636-300x202Business litigation is a major expense for many California entrepreneurs. You can save your business time and money by preventing contractual disputes. The California business litigation attorneys at Structure Law Group provide proactive legal advice to prevent contractual disputes whenever possible. Having your business contracts reviewed by an attorney is an important investment that can pay dividends in the long run.

How Business Contracts Affect Every Area of Your Business

You might not realize just how many areas of your business are affected by contracts. Your customers, vendors, and employees can all subject your business to liability in contractual disputes.

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AdobeStock_330254153-300x200Classifying workers as employees or independent contractors has many different legal implications. In recent years, massive litigation efforts from big companies like Uber have highlighted confusion in this area of the law. This confusion led to the passage of AB-5, which was signed into law in September 2019. The law creates a test for determining whether a worker should be properly classified as an employee or an independent contractor. Business owners should understand this law so they can apply it properly to all workers and thus avoid unnecessary liability.

How AB-5 Changed the Rules of Classification

The new test for classification is known as the “ABC Test”:

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AdobeStock_326855505-300x204Courts across the United States have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With court closures, modifications of hours, countless restrictions, and case backlogs, courts (and litigants) have faced unique challenges.

As courts in California and across the country still face a significant backlog of cases due to the pandemic, many courts have embraced technology and are expected to continue using video and audio platforms and holding virtual hearings, depositions, and even trials in an attempt to improve public safety.

Below, we will talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed California’s Superior Courts.

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AdobeStock_199400743-300x200Hearing the phrase, “a complaint filed against you is being investigated by the California Labor Commissioner” may sound intimidating – and for good reason. Any employer should take investigations conducted by the Labor Commissioner seriously.

If you are an employer who is being investigated by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), you need to understand your rights and obligations. If you received a notice of the ongoing investigation of a complaint filed by your employees, get in touch with a lawyer right away.

At Structure Law Group, our skilled employment lawyers have helped numerous employers across California deal with the California Labor Commissioner and ensure that employers’ rights are protected throughout the process.

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AdobeStock_466265284-300x200As an employer, it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of employment laws. Specifically, we are talking about California’s laws regarding the classification of independent contractors. These laws have seen several changes over the past few years.

If you are an employer in California, you need to be aware of the current independent contractor laws in California to ensure that you classify your workers in compliance with state law and avoid harsh penalties for misclassification.

Employers can avoid problems with the misclassification of workers by working with an experienced employment lawyer. At Structure Law Group, our lawyers help understand employers their rights and obligations to ensure their compliance with all applicable state and federal laws.

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AdobeStock_189991100-300x200In 2018, lawmakers in California extended sexual harassment training requirements to employers who employ five or more employees and required such training for both supervisors and non-supervisors. When the law passed, the original deadline to complete anti-harassment training was set to January 1, 2020.

However, in 2019, California extended the deadline for initial compliance to January 1, 2021. Under the sexual harassment training requirements, covered employers (companies with at least five employees) must provide:

  • One hour of training to non-supervisory employees; and
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AdobeStock_422347465-300x151In recent years, California lawmakers have strengthened the state’s labor laws to increase workplace diversity. Employers must keep up with the ever-changing laws to ensure that they are fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.

California’s latest measures aimed at increasing diversity in the workplace are Assembly Bill 979 and Senate Bill 973, which took effect on January 1, 2021. The two bills are legislators’ latest efforts to increase workplace diversity by requiring more diversity in corporate boardrooms (AB 979) and imposing new pay data reporting requirements based on employees’ gender, race, and ethnicity.

Diversity Requirements for Public Company Boards in California (AB 979)

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Employers’ non-compliance with meal and rest break requirements accounts for a large percentage of civil litigation and Labor Commissioner disputes between employees and employers in California.

It is critical for employers to understand California’s meal and rest break requirements to ensure compliance with these laws and avoid potential litigation. If you are not sure whether or not you comply with the requirements for mandatory breaks, consider speaking with a lawyer.

What Are the Meal Break Requirements in California?

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