Nonexempt employees are entitled to one 30-minute meal break for a shift longer than five hours and a second 30-minute meal break for a shift longer than ten hours. Nonexempt employees are entitled to a ten-minute rest break for every four-hour shift they work. California workers should be aware of their rights in the workplace and actively seek to protect themselves when an employer violates labor law. What Happens When An Employee Isn't Given A Meal Break Or Rest Period? If a California employer fails to provide an employee with a proper meal or rest period (as required by law), the employer must pay the employee an additional hour of pay. This extra pay is commonly referred to as "premium pay." Premium constitutes wages and must be reported on the itemized wage statement. Employers are also required to pay any necessary premium pay for missed meal breaks and rest periods by the statutory deadline if…Read More
As 2021 ends and 2022 begins, COVID-19 continues to significantly impact all aspects of life, including the workplace. Paid sick leave (PSL) and workplace safety are once again at the forefront of the effects. *Paid Sick Leave For many California workers, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated time away from work. Under state law at the time that the pandemic began, workers had only three days of paid sick leave available. Senate Bill 95 and federal tax credits expired on October 1st. SB 95 provided workers with two weeks of PSL if they were infected with the virus or needed to care for relatives or children who were infected. A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health emergency rule, renewed December 16th, allowed some workers to be paid for 10 days if they become infected with or were exposed to the virus. However, this rule did not apply to leave to care for sick relatives or children. Also, coverage…Read More
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (the “WARN Act” or “Act”) was enacted on August 4, 1988, and became effective on February 4, 1989, to protect American workers. The Act offers protection to workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs. Employers are legally required to provide this notice to either affected workers or their representatives, such as a labor union, to the State dislocated worker unit, and to the appropriate unit of local government. Employers are covered by the WARN Act if they have 100 or more employees. This number does not include employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months and employees who work an average of fewer than 20 hours a week. Employees entitled to notice under the WARN Act include hourly and salaried workers, as well as supervisory and managerial employees.…Read More
California is an employment-at-will state. This means that either an employer or an employee may terminate employment at any time, with or without cause or prior notice. California's Labor Code contains a presumption that employees are employed at will. Yet, even at-will employees are protected by state and federal wrongful termination laws. The burden of proof is on the employee to show that the discharge was wrongful and, therefore, illegal. Wrongful termination is typically defined as the discharge of a worker for an unlawful reason, usually some violation of federal or state law, or public policy. The damages that a worker may recover for a wrongful termination claim in California depend on the lawsuit. Generally, they include lost wages and benefits; compensation for emotional distress, as well as other pain and suffering that arises from the loss of your job; and even attorney’s fees. Over time, California labor law has shaped several exceptions to the…Read More
Employees have rights in the workplace. Any business in California that employs individuals must not infringe upon these important workplace rights or it faces serious legal consequences. Employer retaliation for legitimate employee actions is illegal and subject to the payment of damages for any harm caused by such action. Moss Bollinger is an employment law firm that works hard and diligently to protect California employees from any employer that acts as if it is above or beyond the law. Often, when employees assert their workplace rights formally or even informally, employers may retaliate to subvert these rights. Employers take this course of action to set a precedent, one undesirable in any workplace, to create a toxic atmosphere of fear to prevent such employee complaints from occurring again in the future. The attorneys at Moss Bollinger find this course of conduct unacceptable and will fight to make employers pay for encroaching upon the valuable rights possessed by California workers. California…Read More
California employment laws provide some of the toughest and most thorough protections for employees in the entire country. These include the right to work free retaliation, discrimination, and sexual harassment. In spite of these laws, employees far too often find these important rights violated, and are victims of traumatic sexual harassment, discriminatory employment decisions, and retaliation for engaging in lawful activities. One of the questions that can arise in the course of lawsuit regarding employer misconduct is whether the employee’s supervisor received adequate training from the employer. In fact, state employers and private employers with fifty plus employees are required to provide training to supervisors. State employers have significantly higher training requirements than in the private sector. Supervisory employees are required to complete a mandatory 80 hour training that encompasses a broad range of topics, including the legal rights or employees and compliance with those laws. AB 1825, created in 2004, created a requirement that…Read More
For years, California and the federal government have provided Californian workers with strong employees’ rights laws. This includes wage and overtime laws. These laws were designed to protect workers from employers literally working them to death for pennies. Now, employees are guaranteed a minimum wage, rest and break rights, and overtime pay for when they work beyond 40 hours in a week. There are, however, exceptions to these laws. Some Employees are Exempt from Wage and Overtime Laws Exempt employees are workers who an employer does not have to provide minimum wage, overtime, or rest breaks. In other words, they are exempt from the legal obligations of wage and overtime laws. A sad, but predictable side-effect of having this loophole to wage and overtime laws is that some employers choose to abuse it. Skirting these laws allows them to get more work out of their employees while paying them less than they would otherwise get.…Read More
Employers don’t like it when their employees make complaints or cause trouble for them. These complaints cost money, take a lot of time and energy, and can harm the company’s reputation. It is even worse when the complaints against the employer are true. Unfortunately, instead of recognizing their own wrongdoing or violations, employers choose to take out their anger on the employees who have brought attention to their misconduct. What is Retaliation? Retaliation occurs when an employer engages in some form of punishment or adverse employment action against an employee for engaging in a legally protected activity. This punishment can take many different forms, such as threats by the employer or on the employer’s behalf, harassment and bullying, professional humiliation, threatening immigration action, spreading private information, attempts to damage the employee’s reputation, extra assignments, demotion, pay cuts, excluding the employee from training or the opportunity for promotion, and termination. Retaliation is a very serious subject…Read More
California law has some of the toughest laws that protect the rights of employees. Fortunately, this includes when you become injured in relation to your job. After all, you should be able to work with some confidence that you will not be hurt or disabled when working. And if you are injured, you should be taken care of. Under the Labor Code, California employers are required by law to provide worker’s compensation for its employees. This mandatory worker’s compensation insurance is a “no-fault” system which provides medical and disability benefits for those determined to have suffered a work-related injury. First, your employer must provide you with notice. When you start a new job, your employer is responsible for providing materials the clearly explain the your rights and duties, as well as your employer’s rights and duties when it comes to worker’s compensation insurance and claims. Employers must also display a poster that contains Worker’s Compensation…Read More
Wage theft occurs when an employer fails to comply with wage and overtime laws. These include a guaranteed minimum wage, breaks, and overtime pay when employees work long hours. An employer’s failure to abide by these laws is the same thing as stealing from its employees. Unfortunately, some employers who choose to violate their employees’ wage and overtime rights are good at disguising their misconduct. This makes it difficult for employees to know whey they are getting ripped off. Regardless of whether an employee is classified as “exempt” or makes commissions, California laws are very specific in how much an employee must make in salary, or must make overall with commissions; but for our purposes, know that no employee should be making less than the minimum wage per hour. And this is where employees get trapped: because some employers work these employees such long hours that their average hourly rate per hour comes out to…Read More
