Webinar Invitation: 2025 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. (This program will cover additional/updated content, and provide more written materials, than our November 13, 2024 60-minute webinar Changes California Employers Need to Make by January 1, 2025.)

We'll cover topics including:

• Updating Employee Handbooks: How California employers need to update their employee handbooks to comply with changes in the law for 2025, including with respect to EEO policies, sick leave, paid family leave, leave for jury duty, court testimony, and victims of crime or abuse; and, new laws in other states/cities affecting handbook policies (e.g., Alaska, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon).
• Anticipating Federal Changes: This webinar will occur on the 9th day of the new Presidential administration; we'll discuss what will have already changed and anticipated potential future changes for employers.
• "Stay or Pay" Clauses: We'll discuss the NLRB's recently announced position on what amounts to an unlawful "stay or pay" clause, and updates that employers should make to their terms and conditions for sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, relocation packages, and employee educational assistance programs.
• Investigations: Instructive new court rulings regarding workplace investigations, including EEOC's lawsuit against SkyWest where it alleged that human resources conducted only a "surface-level investigation" ($2.17 million jury verdict), and a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruing that the employer could be held liable in a case of alleged harassment of an employee by a coworker in online social media where the employer "slow-walked" its investigation.
• Hiring: New laws affecting hiring practices, including new background check laws in Los Angeles County and San Diego, and new California law affecting driver's license requirements.
• Pay Transparency Laws: As more states have continued to pass pay transparency laws, we'll review new developments, and highlight differences between California and other states' laws.
• New Notice & Disclosure Requirements: A roundup of new notice and disclosure requirements in California and some other states, including new employer notice requirements to provide list of employees’ rights and responsibilities under Labor Code whistleblower laws, and notice requirements regarding social compliance audits.
• Independent Contractors: Recently enacted legal requirements for freelance worker agreements in California, and other jurisdictions; review of how they interact with California's notoriously strict "ABC Test" for determining contractor versus employee status.
• Wage & Hour Law Update: California and federal law increases to exempt employee salary requirements; special heightened pay requirements for software professionals; minimum wage requirements effective January 1, 2025.

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, Brian Nagatani, and Mary Wang 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: Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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

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.