On-Demand Webinar: 2025 Mid-Year California Employment Law Update (7-15-25 Webinar Recording)

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

We'll cover topics including:

• Wage & Hour Law Update: California Court of Appeal ruling that signed employee meal period waivers are valid under certain circumstances; new pay transparency laws across the U.S.; increases in numerous California local city/county minimum wages.
• Discrimination & Harassment: Settlement of lawsuit against Apple alleging that it denied a retention bonus to an employee in his sixties because of age; California Court of Appeal ruling that harassment need not be to the victim’s face to be unlawful, affirming a $4 million jury verdict; Texas federal court ruling that vacated EEOC guidance related to misgendering employees and bathroom use, review of California laws against discrimination based upon gender identity or expression; two new mandatory California employer notices.
• Federal Changes:  The new tax break for overtime, and why it may make the time even more right for employers to review exempt classifications; recission of federal NLRB General Counsel rescinded memoranda (of the prior general counsel) on various topics, including “stay or pay” provisions.
• AI: New California regulations related to automated decision systems (including anti-discrimination and record-keeping requirements), and review of a class action against Workday alleging that algorithm-based screening tools discriminated based upon age.
• DEI & Affirmative Action: We’ll provide a high-level review of federal changes relating to DEI and affirmative action, including new updates since our more detailed May 8, 2025 webinar on these subjects.
• Severance Agreements & Layoffs: Why employers need different versions of severance agreements based upon differing state/local law requirements, supervisor vs non-supervisor status, employee age (under or over age 40), and whether the separation is part of the layoff of 2 or more employees. Registrants will receive a model form that can be used to document the reasons for employee layoff selections, and a model template for a disclosure that is required to be attached to severance agreements for employees age 40 and above affected by a group layoff.
• Contract Law Issues for Employers: Review of a court ruling where a court invalidated an employee arbitration agreement due to the employee being rushed to sign the agreement immediately on her start date, and an HR representative's inaccurate verbal comment about the purpose of the agreement; and, related to the importance of ensuring that personnel policies are written such that employees cannot sue to enforce them as legally binding contracts, a court ruling that disclaimer that a document was not a contract was ineffective because it was inconspicuously "tucked away in a mousehole" (behind an ambiguous hyperlink).
• Key Updates in Other States: Some key legal updates in other states where many of our clients have employees, including Maryland (leave laws), New York (severance agreement requirements), and Washington State (sick leave, other leave laws, personnel files, employee right to termination information).

Registrants can download the program handouts by clicking the gotwebinar handouts icon after accessing the program.

This is an edited recording of a webinar presented by Ray Hixson, Brian Nagatani, Alexa Morgan, and Jay Wang on July 15, 2025. 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.

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