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MANDATORY OPTIONS FOR RETIREMENT FUNDING

To level the playing field for those without access to workplace-based retirement plans, California is phasing in employer requirements to either: ● offer a retirement savings vehicle such as a401(k) plan; or ● facilitate employee access toCalSavers, a state-run savings program in the form of an automatic payroll deductionRoth IRA.

PLAY PAY

With Memorial Day and July 4 approaching, California employers should review and, as needed, update their written holiday policies.

NEW YEAR, NEW LEAF

With the blank slate of a coming new year come the resolutions. No matter the size of an operation, making sure a business has an adequate and up-to-date employee policy manual should be high on the list.

CALIFORNIA PAID VACATION CAN BE NO HOLIDAY

California businesses do not have to offer workers paid vacations. However, theLabor Code dictatesthat if implemented, such pay is an accrued or accruing benefit, prohibiting a “use it or lose it” plan.

WORKPLACE INCOMPETENCE: NOT A CIVIL RIGHT

Wisely, thefederalandCaliforniaworkplace anti-discrimination protections do not include ineffectiveness, ineptness, uselessness, or incompetence.

CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 42 THE PAGA MONSTER IS HUNGRY

Employees’ attorneys are increasingly relying on theCalifornia Private Attorney General Act(PAGA) to pursue businesses for Labor Code violations.

KEEP ON PROVIDING

No state is likely more protective of employees than California nor more likely to have more employment-based claims in its courts. In our last 20-plus years of defending business in such lawsuits, nearly all have included worker allegations of meal and/or rest break deprivation.

EMERGENCY BRAKING REQUIRED

A federal appeals court has ruled that trucking companies must classify owner-operators as employees unless the relationship meets California’s highly restrictive “ABC” criteria for independent contractor status. Thus, haulers not in a position to change their independent relations with owner-operators must swiftly determine if they can meet the detailed “business-to-business” exception to the ABC test.

THE PERIL OF IGNORANCE

Failing to list each required paystub item – nine basic ones and up to another seven for piece pay recipients – for every worker and in every payroll period can subject a California employer to potentially devastating damages and civil penalties. For example, a trucking company employing 50 drivers and five office staff could find itself facing up to $1,000,000 in such damages and penalties for the simple – and inadvertent – omission of its address on the stubs over the space of just 12 months.