Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

The Ninth Circuit ruled on Monday, September 28, that California Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”) claims cannot be waived in employment arbitration agreements, following the rule announced by the California Supreme Court in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal. 4th 348 (2014).  With this 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit majority found that the Iskanian rule barring PAGA waivers is not preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”).

New York’s fast food workers won a major victory last month when the state’s Wage Board voted to recommend a substantial increase in their minimum wage.

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California Governor Jerry Brown indicated in late August that he intends to sign into law a California Senate Bill aimed at further closing gender pay gaps in California. On August 31, 2015, the California State Senate unanimously passed the bill which aims to eliminate gender wage gaps in California by amending the California Equal Pay Act to prohibit employers from compensating employees at wage rates less than rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for “substantially similar” work. Governor Brown was presented with Senate Bill 358 (“SB 358”) in early September, and it is anticipated he will sign it soon.

President Obama signed an Executive Order on Monday, September 7, requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave to their employees, effective January 1, 2017.  The Order  requires federal contractors and their subcontractors to let employees earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours, or 7 days, of leave.

On September 10, 2015, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) issued a Final Rule implementing last year’s Executive Order 13665, which prohibits federal contractors from discharging, or discriminating against, any employee or applicant who “has inquired about, discussed, or disclosed” either their own compensation information or that of another employee or applicant.

A recent ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has broadened the standard for assessing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

A recent ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has broadened the standard for assessing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

In a ruling that redefines the concept of employment in the United States, the National Labor Relations Board yesterday issued its much-anticipated decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. d/b/a Newby Island Recyclery, 362 NLRB No. 186 (2015). The decision rewrites and drastically expands the definition of who is a “joint employer” under the National Labor Relations Act. The business community has been bracing for this decision for several months, and now that it has been released, the Board’s new standard is likely to create a host of labor relations ...

For many employers and employees, arbitration is a quicker and less costly means of resolving employment-related disputes. As a result, it has become standard practice for many employers to require as a condition of employment that employees agree to arbitrate employment-related claims. Mandatory arbitration clauses are routinely found in employment agreements or given to employees as separate employment policies at the time of hire or during their employment.

California’s paid sick leave law, which only went into effect on July 1, 2015 and was recently further clarified on July 13, 2015, continues to raise questions for California employers. Most recently, California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) was asked by an employer to clarify what the use of the word “day” meant for employees who work ten hour shifts, i.e. more than the traditional eight-hour work day. The DLSE found that such employees would be entitled to the wage they normally earn, meaning for those employees a day would mean ten, as opposed to eight hours, entitling them to an additional two hours of leave.