Webinar Invitation: 2023 Mid-Year California Employment Law Update

We're offering this in-depth 2-hour webinar to catch you up on a wide range of important new legal developments for California employers. We'll cover topics including:

• Leaves of Absence Law Update: Review of new state leave laws across the country; new San Francisco law that requires pay for military leave; lawsuits claiming discrimination based upon providing more paid parental leave to “primary caregivers” than “secondary caregivers”; court ruling that an employee could claim discrimination due to not being paid during military leave the same as other paid leaves (e.g., jury duty, bereavement leave, sick leave).
• Wage & Hour Law Update: $8 million settlement by Google of claims that it failed to include in overtime pay for account managers the value of their restricted stock units and bouses; $53.5 million settlement of United Airlines for claims of non-compliant pay stubs (we’ll review California law paystub requirements).
• Stock Options: Federal court ruling that an employee did not have a claim under ERISA for allegedly having been terminated to prevent stock option vesting.
• Investigations: $366 million jury verdict awarded to a former Fed-Ex salesperson alleging retaliation for complaints about race discrimination and a “sham investigation” of her complaints; $35 million settlement by Activision of claims that it failed to keep track properly of employee complaints of misconduct, and required departing employees to agree to inform the company if they were contacted by government agencies performing investigations.
• Sexual Harassment & Constructive Discharge: California court ruling that Rite Aid was not liable for a supervisor’s sexual texts to a subordinate, or “constructive termination” (based upon the subordinate’s resignation), because of the employees’ pre-existing personal relationship, and Rite Aid’s strong corrective actions that included repeatedly inviting the subordinate employee to return to work.
• Arbitration Agreements: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that invalidates a California state law that prohibited mandatory arbitration agreements; court rulings that permit employees to proceed with Private Attorney Generals Act (“PAGA”) claims representing other employees in California state court, despite having signed arbitration agreements.
• Severance Agreements: The National Labor Board’s recent ruling in McLaren Macomb that the employer violated the National Labor Relations Act by offering employees a form of severance agreement that included standard non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses; how standard severance agreements need to be updated for non-supervisors because of this ruling.

Attendees will receive detailed PowerPoint slides and several additional written handouts. Time will also be reserved for answering attendee questions.

Your presenters will be attorneys Ray Hixson and Brian Nagatani who are partners of the law firm Hixson Nagatani LLP. Hixson Nagatani LLP advises and represents employers in a wide range of employment law matters. The firm provides advice and counsel on proactive steps that employers should take to ensure compliance and minimize legal risks, including with respect to creating and updating personnel policies and practices, personnel-related forms, risk assessment of contemplated personnel actions, and managers' legal training. The firm also defends employers against actual and threatened employee claims, including claims made in state and federal courts, arbitration, and government agencies.

Continuing education credits: This program has been submitted to the HR Certification Institute and SHRM for review. This program qualifies for 2.0 hours of MCLE for California attorneys.

Date & Time:

Date: Thursday, June 22, 2023

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Registration fee: Clients of Hixson Nagatani LLP may attend for no charge by entering the promo code: HNFIRMCLIENT. Client status will be verified before approving registrations. For non-clients, there is a $75 registration fee to be paid at the time of registration. No check payments accepted.