Wage & Hour

SB 434 amends Labor Code section 226.7 (formerly addressing rest and meal periods only) to add a new “recovery period” obligation on employers.  So like rest and meal periods, California employers are now required to provide “recovery periods.” A “recovery period” is defined as “a…Read More

Employee sues employer and wins.  Employee gets their attorneys’ fees in nearly all cases. Employee sues employer and loses, i.e. gets zero.  Employer doesn’t get their attorney’s fees in nearly all cases. One of lone exceptions to this uneven rule (as of 12/31/2013) used to…Read More

Now that the California minimum wage will increase to $9/hour on July 1, 2014 and to $10/hour on January 1, 2016, California employers must gear up for pay raises to their exempt employees.  That’s a 12.5% legally mandated pay raise in 2014 and another 11.1%…Read More

A California Court of Appeals has put another nail in the coffin for piece rate systems in California.  Bluford v. Safeway Stores, Inc. (5/24/2013) ruled California employers are “required to separately compensate for rest periods” and cannot compensate for them  by including them in a piece…Read More

A wave of vacation policy issues has crashed our firm’s practice recently.  A client’s employee handbook vacation policy had to be tweaked to comply with California law.  Another client needed advice on how to terminate an employee who insisted on taking vacation after their request…Read More

If your business has been sued you want the case to be over as soon as possible with the least overall cost.  This is particularly true if it is a class, collective or other representative action.  The U.S. Supreme Court in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk,…Read More

With new California “wage and hour” cases coming out almost daily one should not be surprised that many previously unchallenged well-established California employer wage and hour practices are now being called into question.  One of those practices is piece rate compensation. What Is A Piece…Read More

California law requires an off duty unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes for every five hours worked.  The failure to provide the meal period results in a penalty of one hour at the employee’s regular hourly rate of pay (Labor Code section 226.7 –…Read More

After years of waiting, and $millions (if not $billions) in legal fees, settlements and damages paid by California businesses, the California Supreme Court has issued its rest and meal period decision in the Brinker Restaurant case. Overview The Brinker Court fashioned practical rules somewhat favorable to employers.  The key question…Read More

A Vision Law® attorney attended the live oral argument before the California Supreme Court in San Francisco on November 8, 2011 on a case involving an employer’s obligation under California law on rest periods and meal periods. It is astonishing that the highest court of…Read More