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COMEBACK TRAIL

NewCalifornia Labor Code 2810.8requires all hospitality and business services employers — e.g. hotels; private clubs; event centers; airport-related hospitality operations or service providers; and janitorial, building maintenance or security services provided to office, retail or other commercial buildings — to offer new positions to qualified former employees laid off due to COVID-19, through 2024.

CALIFORNIA PIECE WORK IS A PIECE OF WORK

“Piece work” pay or “piece rate” is compensation for an employee’s unit of production. Until two key 2013 California Supreme Court decisions (Gonzales v. Downtown L.A. MotorsandBluford v. Safeway), this arrangement had long-worked to benefit workers and management in many industries. Trucking companies commonly paid drivers by the mile or by the delivery, auto repair shops paid mechanics by the task accomplished, and agricultural enterprises paid field workers by the bin or other unit measure.

EXECUTIVES ADMINISTRATORS PROFESSIONALS

“Exempt” in California workplace-speak commonly means an employee classified as exempt from overtime pay. Such workers may also be exempt from other rights and benefits accorded hourly workers, including provided meal and rest periods and “reporting time pay” (a minimum two hours of wages daily once on the job).

TRACKING DOWN DISCRIMINATION

TheU.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC)2020 Enforcement and Litigation Reporttallies its workplace discrimination charges processed between October, 2019 through September, 2020.

NO-FAIL DETAIL

Employers must verify identity and work authorization for U.S.-based citizens and noncitizens using “Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification” (I-9 Form).Potential consequencesfor noncompliance can include civil fines of up to $ 23,331 per occurrence as well as criminal prosecution and imprisonment.

WHAT’S EVEN NEWER IN 2021 CALIFORNIA EXPANDS COVID-19 PAID SICK LEAVE

Effective March 29, 2021, California Labor Code248.2’s “COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave” law (SPSL) requires employerswith 26 or more totalemployees, i.e., nationwide, to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental paid sick leave benefits to eligible/covered California workers through September 30, 2021. The new law also covers providers of in-home supportive services (see California Labor Code248.3).

CAUTIONARY TALE EPISODE 41 GYMNASTICS SCHOOL TAKES A TUMBLE

The California Labor Commissioner has assessedIrvine’s Perfect Point Corp. dbaSouth Coast Gymnasticsand its owner, Xiaoping Li, $1.3 million for wage and hour violations affecting 28 coaches and administrative staff after a COVID-19 compliance inspection turned into a payroll audit of the preceding three years.

MINIMUS MAXIMUS

With two exceptions (New Zealand, 1894; Australia, 1896), no country had a minimum wage law until the 20thCentury. Instead, employers paid what they contended were “just (or fair) wages” on the purported mutual consent of their workers. If employees agreed to labor at the take-it-or-leave-it rates business offered,U.S. courts ruled they were powerlessto challenge the sanctity of that private contract.

SQUARE MEAL IS THE DEAL

The California Supreme Court has ruled that employers may not round worker time entries for meal breaks, in contrast to rules permitting rounding for start and end of workday time entries.Kennedy Donohue v. AMN Services, Inc.(Donohue) (February, 2021).