California lawmakers introduced numerous bills early in the 2025 legislative session that could affect California employment law in significant ways. Although it is too soon to predict which bills, if any, will advance, the...more
3/25/2025
/ Automated Decision Systems (ADS) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Job Ads ,
Pay Transparency ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Surveillance ,
Training Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft
On October 7, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) No. 700 into law, expanding California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act to protect applicants from discrimination based on prior cannabis use, with...more
10/10/2023
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Cannabis Products ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Chance Act ,
FEHA ,
Governor Newsom ,
Job Applicants ,
Marijuana
Beginning on January 1, 2024, California employers will be prohibited from discharging employees or refusing to hire individuals based on their off-duty use of marijuana.
Assembly Bill (AB) 2188, the workplace...more
California employers may soon be barred from discharging employees or refusing to hire individuals based on their off-duty use of marijuana, under a new bill headed to the governor’s desk. On August 30, 2022, the...more
9/7/2022
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Drug Testing ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
FEHA ,
Governor Newsom ,
Marijuana ,
Off-Duty Employees ,
Pending Legislation ,
Recreational Use ,
Screening Procedures
A bill recently introduced in the California Assembly proposes to prohibit discrimination against employees who use cannabis off the job.
The legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) No. 2188, would amend California’s employment...more
4/27/2022
/ Cannabis Products ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
FEHA ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Marijuana ,
Pre-Employment Health Screenings ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Recreational Use
As the United States gradually emerges from the pandemic, employers (and especially those in the tech sector whose workforces can easily work remotely) are looking for ways to help frazzled and burned-out employees. In...more
Taking a meal break in California is no simple affair. Culminating seven years of litigation involving one California employer, on February 25, 2021, the Supreme Court of California issued its unanimous opinion in Donohue v....more
3/5/2021
/ CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Rebuttable Presumptions ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Rounding ,
State Labor Laws ,
Timekeeping ,
Wage and Hour
On August 30, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 778 into law, thereby giving employers more time to comply with the state’s sexual harassment training requirement. In September 2018, former...more
9/13/2019
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
FEHA ,
Governor Newsom ,
New Legislation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statutory Deadlines ,
Time Extensions
News accounts report that thousands of Californians celebrated the first day of 2018 by exercising their new right to legally purchase marijuana for recreational use. Recreational marijuana shops were overwhelmed by long...more
Many employers enforce attendance policies which assign an “occurrence” for unscheduled, unapproved absences. Although employers generally have discretion to implement attendance policies, such policies should be carefully...more
Voters will have the opportunity this coming November to determine whether California joins a growing number of states that have legalized recreational marijuana. If so, what would this mean for employers?...more
California Governor Brown signed legislation on July 13, 2015 that aims to clarify and improve California’s new paid sick leave law that requires employers to offer employees 3 days or 24 hours of paid sick leave per year as...more