On September 8, 2012, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the Workplace Religious Freedom Act into law. The law, which becomes effective on January 1, 2013, amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (the “Act”) to include a religious dress practice or a religious grooming practice as a belief or observance covered under the Act’s protections against religious discrimination.
The new law also specifies that it is not reasonable to segregate an employee from the public or other employees as an accommodation of the individual’s religious ...
By Michael Kun
Employers with operations in California have become aware in recent years of an obscure provision in California Wage Orders that requires “suitable seating” for some employees. Not surprisingly, many became aware of this provision through the great many class action lawsuits filed by plaintiffs’ counsel who also just discovered the provision. The law on this issue is scant. However, at least two pending cases should clarify whether and when employers must provide seats – a case against Bank of America that is currently before the Ninth Circuit Court of ...
On October 11, 2012, the California Supreme Court granted review of Patterson v. Domino's Pizza to address the circumstances in which a defendant franchisor may be held vicariously liable for tortious conduct by a supervising employee of a franchisee.
Like many fast food chains, Domino’s Pizza (“Domino’s”) is a franchising operation in which individual franchisees operate storefronts under the Domino’s name.
In Patterson, the plaintiff, a sixteen-year-old employee of a Sui Juris, a Domino’s Pizza franchisee (“Sui Juris”), alleged that she ...
The Site-Specific Targeting Program (SST) is OSHA’s primary “programmed” inspection plan for non-construction workplaces. The SST Program is geared to address OSHA’s goal of reducing the number of injuries and illnesses that occur at individual workplaces, by directing enforcement resources to those workplaces where the highest rate of injuries and illness have occurred.
The SST is driven by data received from the prior year’s OSHA Data Initiative Survey. Using the data from this annual survey, and criteria that change every year, such as ...
By: Michael S. Kun, as appeared on the Wage & Hour Defense blog
Employers with operations in California have become aware in recent years of an obscure provision in California Wage Orders that requires “suitable seating” for some employees. Not surprisingly, many became aware of this provision through the great many class action lawsuits filed by plaintiffs’ counsel who also just discovered the provision. The law on this issue is scant. However, at least two pending cases should clarify whether and when employers must provide seats – a case against Bank of America that is ...
We are pleased to announce today that the Employer Defense Law Blog has a new look and a more focused approach. The Employer Defense Law Blog will now be known as the Retail Labor and Employment Law Blog, which will provide insights, news, updates, and commentary on labor and employment law developments affecting employers in the retail industry.
For more than three decades, Epstein Becker Green attorneys have been advising and representing retail clients on a wide array of matters that impact their businesses. Our services have included, among other things, drafting worldwide ...
By Michael Kun and Aaron Olsen
Following up on the California Supreme Court’s recent decision in See’s Candy v. Superior Court, a California federal court has now dismissed a time-rounding class action against H.J. Heinz Company. And, once again, the court has relied upon the decision in our case Alonzo v. Maximus.
This, of course, is more good news for employers with operations in California. Between See’s Candy and Maximus, it will be exceedingly hard for plaintiffs to proceed with time-rounding class actions against employers who have even-handed time-rounding policies ...
Jonathan Blitt, CEO and Co-Founder of aText, Incorporated, has over 24 years of experience in the application of high technology in industries ranging from software, telecommunications, and network infrastructure and is an expert in the application of multimedia technology to a myriad of operations. In this interview, Mr. Blitt provides his insights into the benefits of leveraging legacy technologies and leading with passion:
What is the mission and vision of aText, Incorporated? On one level, the mission of aText is to take an intimate , interactive, and immediate legacy form of ...
By Kara Maciel and Jordan Schwartz
As you know if you are a reader of our blog, in 2010 the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published updated regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), which adopted the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design (“2010 Standards”). As we explained here, the 2010 Standards contain specific accessibility requirements for a number of types of recreational facilities, including swimming pools, wading pools and spas. As we also reported in this blog here, while the effective date of the 2010 Standards generally is ...
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Recent Updates
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