Limo Company Alleges Uber Illegally Saved $500 Million by Misclassifying Drivers as Independent Contractors A limousine company recently filed a lawsuit against Uber in federal court alleging that Uber misclassified its drivers as independent contractors, to illegally obtain a competitive advantage over its law-abiding competitors (referring to taxi companies and livery services). The limo company […]

Court of Appeal Finds ABC Test Only Applies to Wage-Order Claims Determining whether to classify a worker as an independent contractor or an employee can be tricky business under California law. Add the significant risk associated with misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and the end result is a high stakes game of litigation roulette. Several […]

Gerawan’s Victory Over the UFW Underscores the Absurdity of AB 2751 Last month, agricultural employers everywhere watched as the Agricultural Labor Relations Board finally tallied the workers’ votes from the 2013 decertification election held at Gerawan Farming.  Two weeks later, the ALRB cemented Gerawan’s triumph over the United Farm Workers by affirming the 1,098 to […]

Governor Brown Signs New Sexual Harassment Laws The 2018 legislative session has come to an end.  This year, over 100 new bills were signed which affect the labor and employment laws in California.  The so-called #MeToo Movement influenced the Legislature, with twelve sexual harassment and retaliation-related measures making their way to Governor Brown’s desk.  Five […]

IT’S OVER!  THE ALRB JUST DECERTIFIED THE UFW AT GERAWAN! IT IS CERTIFIED that a majority of the valid ballots have been cast for ‘No Union’ in the representation election conducted on November 5, 2013, among the agricultural employees of Gerawan Farming, Inc., in the State of California, and that the United Farm Workers of […]

“No Union!  No Union!  No Union!”  After Five Years of ALRB Antics, the Voices of Thousands of Gerawan Farming’s Workers Have Finally Been Heard For the past five years, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board has spent millions in taxpayer funds (and, by recent estimates, over $13 million) to aid the UFW in suppressing the results […]

A California Court of Appeal Found That a Group of Employees Waived Their Meal Breaks in a Collective Bargaining Agreement California Labor Code section 512, subdivision (a) states that an employee working more than five hours, but less than ten hours, in a shift is entitled to a meal period of at least 30 minutes, […]

Employer Knowledge of Employees Skipping Meal and/or Rest Breaks Alone Is Insufficient to Establish Liability California employers, including staffing agencies that provide temporary employees to their clients, are not required to police staff to ensure compliance with meal period obligations or to investigate time records to uncover possible violations.  The California Labor Code guarantees that […]

Dollar General Discriminated Against a Diabetic Employee by Firing Her for Drinking Orange Juice in Violation of an “Anti-grazing” Policy A federal appellate court recently upheld a $725,000 jury verdict against Dollar General for discriminating against an employee on the basis of her disability. Central to the lawsuit was $3.38 worth of orange juice. This […]

California Supreme Court Issues New Classification Guidelines for Independent Contractors On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903, clarifying the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of the […]