On-Demand Webinar: 2023 Mid-Year California Employment Law Update (6-22-23 Recording)

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).
• Employee Confidentiality & Arbitration Agreements: California Court of Appeal ruling in Alberto v. Cambrian Homecare that some provisions commonly found in employee confidentiality agreements are unconscionable, and that such unconscionability can invalidate an accompanying employee arbitration agreement (e.g., both contained in new hire paperwork); NLRB General Counsel opinion that requiring employees to sign non-competes anywhere in the U.S. violates federal law; 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.
• 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 bonuses; $53.5 million settlement of United Airlines for claims of non-compliant pay stubs (we’ll review California law paystub requirements).
• Independent Contractors (“ABC Test”) Update: How courts are applying the ABC test, including a federal court ruling that GrubHub could not show that their delivery drivers work outside of the company’s usual course of business (thereby failing the “B factor”).
• 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; $11.3 million jury verdict awarded to a former Equinox personal trainer who alleged the company failed to investigate properly complaints of race and sex discrimination; review of investigation best practices and common mistakes.
• 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.
• 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.

Registrants will be able to download several handouts (by clicking the gotwebinar handouts icon), including a handout of the slides, and several model forms related to the program topics.

This is an edited recording of a webinar presented by Ray Hixson and Brian K. Nagatani on June 22, 2023. Please note that the webinar does not address changes in the law since the original program date. Please also note that the webinar provides only general information about the law, and does not constitute legal advice. Companies or individual seeking legal advice should retain counsel.

Please note that HR and attorney continuing education credits are not available for watching this recorded program.

Registration Fee: $75 per registrant. Clients of Hixson Nagatani LLP may register at no charge by entering the promo code: HNFIRMCLIENT. Registrants who previously paid to attend the live version of this webinar may register for the on-demand webinar free of charge by entering the promo code: PAIDFORLIVE. Promo code eligibility will be reviewed for all registrants before approving the registration.

You may access the program’s handouts by clicking the gotowebinar handouts icon.