Tag: San Francisco

Basics of Overtime Law in California

Overtime laws in California differ from the federal laws. If you have employees in California, you need to know your overtime obligations. In a CER webinar titled “Exemption Audits in California: Practical Strategies for Conducting a Successful Self-Audit of Your Job Classifications,” Allen M. Kato outlined some overtime basics for us to help employers understand […]

Can You Scrap the Original Once It’s Scanned?

Yesterday’s Advisor focused on Jacuzzi’s rules for electronic recordkeeping. Today, we’ll get more of his tips and an introduction to BLR’s popular “find-it-before-the-feds-do” FLSA audit program. Jacuzzi is a shareholder in the South San Francisco law firm Simpson, Garrity, Innes & Jacuzzi, P.C. His comments came at a recent audio conference sponsored by BLR®. What […]

Conducting an Exemption Audit in California: Complying With Overtime and Other Wage-Hour Laws

By Allen Kato, Fenwick & West LLP Why should you conduct an exemption audit in California? Employee claims alleging they are misclassified as exempt from overtime (brought as individual claims or class-action lawsuits) are the lawsuit of the day. For example, in March 2012, a California court approved a $35 million settlement by Oracle involving […]

Beauty and the Best

We have eliminated many forms of workplace discrimination and made great strides toward erasing others, says attorney Mark Schickman. Nonetheless, one form of discrimination—“Beauty Bias,” as coined by Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode—remains alive, well, and possibly inherent in the human condition.

Metrics: Don’t Go to Management Without Them

Metrics for Compensation and Benefits Sullivan suggests that rather than trying to use a statistical method to evaluate pay fairness, use an employee survey on perceptions of pay fairness compared with work expectations. Here are the measures he suggests: Amount in total compensation and benefits costs needed to generate a dollar of revenue. (Usually expressed […]

Metrics: 2 Common Errors That Make Them Worthless

Metrics guru Dr. John Sullivan says that human resources managers make two key mistakes when using metrics. Sullivan is a metrics consultant and professor of management at San Francisco State University. Mistake #1: Metrics in a Vacuum The first mistake, says Sullivan, blogging on www.ere.net, is that comp/HR managers tend to develop and implement metrics […]

When EEOC Suggests Mediation, Should You Say ‘Yes’?

Schickman is a partner at Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP in San Francisco. His remarks came at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Las Vegas. EEOC staffers have a lot of cases, and they want to get cases into their “resolved” file. Also, he adds, you often get some relief on document production and reporting […]

Be Careful About Drug Testing in California

Yesterday, we looked at the first 5 of the top 10 hiring mistakes you should be careful to avoid. Today, the rest of the top 10, and an introduction to a webinar that will help clear up a new source of problems and confusion for California employers: medical marijuana.