Recent Blog Posts
Bill Barring Mandatory Arbitration of Employment Disputes Awaits Gov. Brown’s Signature
San Francisco labor & employment law attorney Richard Koss discusses passage of AB465, a new law ending mandatory arbitration of California employment disputes.
NLRB Ruling Allows Unions To Negotiate Directly with Staffing Agencies and other “Joint Employers”
San Francisco labor & employment lawyer Richard Koss discusses new NLRB ruling allowing unions to negotiated directly with staffing agencies as joint employers
Revised Labor Code Provides Increase Protection for California Whistleblowers
As a result of bills passed into law by Governor Jerry Brown and enacted last year, California employees who report wrongdoing by their employers or fellow employees are now more protected from retaliatory actions by their employers. California has had a strong whistleblower protection law since 1984 when California Labor Code section 1102.5 was… Read More »
Amendments to California Family Rights Act Provide Expanded Family Leave Protections
On July 1, 2015, revised regulations went into effect in California relating to the rights of California employees to take time off from work in order to take care of a newborn child, to care for a newly adopted or foster child placed with the employee, to care for a child, parent, or spouse… Read More »
Update: Labor Board Determines that Uber Driver Is an Employee
In a previous blog post, we discussed two lawsuits currently pending before San Francisco courts regarding Uber and Lyft, respectively (see Are you an Uber Employee?, posted April 7, 2015). In each case, drivers for those companies are attempting to make a case that, while the company regards them as independent contractors, they are… Read More »
Outsourcing Labor No Longer Protects California Employers from Wage Violations or Workers’ Compensation Requirements
At the start of the year, AB 1897 went into effect. This law amends California Labor Code section 2810 by adding a new section 2810.3 to the law. The crux of this law is found at 2810.3(b), which states: A client employer shall share with a labor contractor all civil legal responsibility and civil… Read More »
Jury Decides Against Ellen Pao in Silicon Valley Venture Capital Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
After three years of litigation, a 24-day trial and several hours of deliberations, the jury in the employment discrimination case brought by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ellen Pao returned a verdict in favor of her employer, deciding that the venture capital firm was not guilty of gender/sex discrimination. Specifically, the jury decided that gender… Read More »
Are You an Uber Employee?
A new business model hit the streets a couple of years ago, taking advantage of the fact that people are already driving all over the place all the time, and plenty of these people wouldn’t mind giving somebody else a ride if they could pick up some extra cash along the way. Harnessing the… Read More »
California Appeals Court Overturns Jury Award of $285,000 for Failure to Prevent Sexual Harassment and Discrimination
On March Sixth, the California Court of Appeals released its decision in Dickson v. Burke Williams, Inc., overturning a jury award of $285,000 against a company for failing to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination. The employee was a massage therapist who sued her employer for alleged sex discrimination and sexual harassment perpetrated by two… Read More »
