Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
I know that California law requires both parties’ consent to record or monitor phone calls. So if we intend to record or monitor incoming phone calls, we need to have a recording that says that the call may be monitored or recorded. However, what if we are calling out to a customer or client? At […]
Allstate Corp., the nation’s second-largest home and auto insurer, has agreed to pay out up to $120 million to settle claims that some of its white-collar employees in California were routinely required to work long hours without overtime pay. The settlement grew out of a class action lawsuit filed by insurance adjusters, alleging that Allstate […]
Video game retailer Electronics Boutique of America has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court charging the company misclassified managers in the retailer’s California stores as exempt from overtime. The lawsuit charged that managers regularly worked overtime without additional pay and spent more than 50 percent of their […]
Economic pressure may be forcing you to cut your workforce. And you may wonder if you can do anything to reduce your legal risks if an employee you’ve targeted for layoff has recently returned from medical leave. As one employer that recently sidestepped an expensive lawsuit learned, the answer may lie in how scrupulous you […]
An Orange County jury has awarded $1,350,000 to a real estate agent who claimed she was terminated because she complained she was being sexually harassed by a corporate vice president. And a Los Angeles jury has awarded $1,125,000 to a transit employee who claimed that she was sexually harassed by her supervisor and that the […]
Most California employers know that agreements that restrict employees from competing with former employers are illegal and that California courts won’t enforce them. But because of a new California Supreme Court ruling, it is now riskier for you to hire someone who has signed a noncompete clause with a company from another state. This new […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Home Depot for sex discrimination. The agency charges that the home-improvement retailer repeatedly rejected a female applicant for various positions at a new Home Depot store in Rialto, near Los Angeles, and hired less-qualified men for the jobs. In response to the lawsuit, Home Depot has denied […]
When court secretary Alice Jones sued the Los Angeles Superior Court and the County of Los Angeles for harassment, the county asked to be let out of the lawsuit, arguing that it wasn’t her employer—the Superior Court was. A California appellate court agreed, ruling that the Superior Court was Jones’ sole employer because it appointed […]
Because employee Internet access in the workplace can raise the potential for abuse and misuse, some employers monitor their employees’ Internet activities. But this in turn raises concerns about employees’ right to privacy. An important new California Court of Appeal decision addresses this issue head-on, ruling that an employee who consented to employer monitoring had […]
Three unskilled laborers who were hired to clean a film lab at Metrocolor Laboratories in Los Angeles sued, claiming Metrocolor told them to use a particular cleaning substance without revealing that it contained hazardous chemicals that can cause brain and nervous system damage. The workers’ skin became soaked with the liquid as it rained down […]