Articles Tagged with San Jose Employment Attorney

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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_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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AdobeStock_252112056-300x200Changes to the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) took effect on January 1, 2021, after the passage of Senate Bill 1383. The expansion of the CFRA has brought significant changes to employers and employees in California.

Below, we will summarize everything California employers should be aware of to ensure compliance with the CFRA expansion.

SB 1383: Sweeping Changes to the California Family Rights Act

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It is always advisable for employers to have an employee handbook, which will contain important information that protects you legally. Even if a company only has a few employee, without a handbook, it might expose itself to the greater risk of a lawsuit regarding sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and other wrongful treatment of employees.

What to Include in Your Handbook

A handbook is a great reference for employees, who can return to the handbook if they have questions. A handbook also forces employers to carefully consider their philosophy and the rules of the business. An adequate handbook should contain:

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Employment law is a constantly changing landscape of regulations promulgated on a national state, and even local level. Wages, gender discrimination, hours, working conditions, safety precautions, and many other aspects of the employee-employer relationship are regulated by federal, state and local employment laws. A San Jose employment law attorney can help protect employers’ rights while also helping to ensure compliance with employment laws and regulations.  Following are California laws which have been recently updated to provide employees with more legal protections.

Situations in Which Employees Have the Legal Right to Take Time off Work

Sections 230 and 230.1 of the California Labor Code provide specific rights to workers who have been the victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. In general, these laws protect an employee’s right to take time off work to attend to matters related to the crime they have suffered. These matters include: obtaining a restraining order or other legal protection, seeking medical attention, obtaining services from domestic violence shelters or rape crisis centers, participating in psychological counseling, and creating a safety plan to prevent the recurrence of the crime. Employers are prohibited from terminating, discriminating, or retaliating against an employee who exercises these rights.

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Changing employment can be a stressful, life-changing event. Severance benefits can, however, ease the transition period. With sound advice from a skilled employment law attorney, Californiafotolia_127084189-300x300 employees and employers can both negotiate severance packages which suit their needs.

While it may seem like a severance package is simply a final lump sum figure, the reality is that it can be a complex combination of many different components. An effective negotiation begins with identifying which of those components are most important to you. For example: many employees may be concerned with continued access to health insurance, and may therefore negotiate a lower lump sum payout in exchange for continued coverage. Employers, on the other hand, may be concerned with preventing a future lawsuit against the company. These employers may negotiate a comprehensive release of liability in exchange for the employee’s agreement not to sue the company.

Some people imagine negotiations as a poker game, in which neither party reveals his or her ultimate goals. This will not result in any resolution – let alone one which satisfies both sides. Instead, it is important for each side to be clear about what is most important so that solutions can be tailored to the needs of all involved parties.

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The United States Department of Labor recently announced a new rule on white collar overtime exemption regulations. This new rule will affect an estimated 4.2 million white collar workers who will no longer be exempt from Fair Standards Labor Act guidelines and must be paid for overtime work. The new rule will go into effect on December 1, 2016. The employment lawyers at Structure Law Group, LLP are experienced in ensuring that their clients follow all federal and California employment rules and regulations.

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Previously, qualifying employees with an annual salary of more than $23,660 (or $455 per week) were generally exempt from the federal requirement that employees are entitled to overtime if they work over forty hours in one week. Under the new law, the minimum salary threshold for exemption has been raised to $47,476 annually, or $913 per week. This amount will be automatically revised every three years by a formula that takes into account wages across the country.

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Any company with employees is aware of the fact that conflicts between people are inevitable. Conflicts can arise due to disagreements about work-related matters or because of issues that are purely personal. Fortunately, these kinds of conflicts are often resolved informally and without the intervention of an employment attorney or even the human resources department. In some cases, however, an employee may file a lawsuit against his or her employer in an attempt to hold it liable for discriminatory policies, discriminatory acts committed by management, or even the failure to address inappropriate conduct between one employee towards another.Fotolia_61516923_Subscription_Yearly_M-300x149

There are several steps that California employers can take to minimize their legal liability as a result of discrimination lawsuits, some of which are detailed below.

Have an employee handbook

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