The Technical

The new laws which we will be looking at are labeled the following: ABX2-7, ABX2-9, ABX2-11, SBX2-5and SBX2-7. Those readers who are fluent in legal language can follow those links to the official California Legal Information website.

What These Changes Mean

Technical language can be difficult, so to avoid confusion we’ve simplified it down to just what you need to know:

• The minimum smoking age has been raised from 18 to 21.

This means that any current smokers between those two ages are no longer going to legally be able to purchase tobacco and tobacco products until they again reach the legal age. Buying these products is also not possible until the user is at least 21 years of age.

• These laws apply to traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes, chew and cigars, in addition to vaporizers and e-cigarettes.

These modern devices had slightly outpaced the laws regarding tobacco use, so changes had to be made for these laws to catch up. This means that if you were wanting or intending to use the devices to circumvent the law, this is not possible.

• These smoking restrictions apply to all employers. This includes businesses which are owner-operated and without other employees, provided said businesses allow any clients or non-employees into the workplace.

The idea here is that if a workplace can be accessed by a client, an employee, or any other individual, then smoking is not allowed. This does not apply if a business owner operates out of an area which no other individual can access. There are also other exceptions when it comes to a few specific situations, such as private smoking lounges in tobacco stores, or the cabins of large trucks when no non-smoking employees are present.

• Businesses which have allowed smoking up until this point are legally required to change.

There are a few common places in which smoking has long been long accepted. The most popular of these include bars, taverns, warehouses and hotel lobbies. With these new laws in play, any of these businesses which have previously allowed smoking are still required to change.

• Smokers are also party to these rules.

Any tobacco users out there are also required to follow these new smoking restrictions. Any business in which smoking is not allowed by the staff also has these rules extend to the customer.

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Employees are essential to any organization or company, but without fair pay, no one would stick around very long. If you have employees in your business or company, you should ensure that you pay them well, especially the ones that you want to stick around.

In addition, you should ensure that they have good working conditions. Good remuneration is one of the motivating factors that can make employees perform better in the workplace.

However, there are circumstances where employees are normally discriminated due to their races. This leads to a race-based disparity in pay. This is detrimental. This can actually make an employee lose morale in his or her job. However, in California, Fair Pay Act came to mitigate this problem.

What is Fair Pay?

You will note that employees who perform similar work under similar working conditions should be paid equally. However, there are instances where the employees who work under the same conditions can be paid differently.

In this case, the employee should be able to manifest that the wage differential is based on either of the following; senior system, merit system and so forth. He or she should also show that he or she gets more salary not as a result of sex or race but due to factors such as education or experience.

You will note that this law requires that each factor is relied on. Each factor should account for the entire wage differential. This is one way of reducing discrimination in the workplace. As we move towards the future, employees will need to be paid for the position he or she is worth.

However, if the same employee has extra skills and competencies that can help the company or the organization, he or she can get a higher salary. The burden of paying employees falls on the employer.

The employer should check these factors so that he or she can pay the employees what they deserve. If you promote fairness in your workplace, your employees will be encouraged to work. In addition, their morale will increase. This goes a long way in improving their productivity.

What the Fair Pay Act Does

The Fair Pay Act basically calls for an overhaul of hiring practices of HR professionals who work in California. These professionals should check the credentials of the job applicants and then reward them accordingly.

This can do a long way in reducing race-based disparities in pay. Earlier on, job applicants used to negotiate for their salaries with their employers. However, times have changed. This Act has enabled most employees to get a fair pay for their services. This can be very beneficial to your company or business in California.

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In the recent past, domestic violence has become an issue of concern in California and many other states throughout the US. Although the law gives a provision for protected time off to domestic violence victims, it has come out clear that only a small number of people are aware of these provisions.

For this reason, a large number of employees are denied their rights. However, some important measures have been put in place, in order to ensure that all employees are aware of their rights with regard to domestic violence leave.

New Bills

One of the crucial steps that have been taken is the signing of the AB 2337 bill by the governor. The bill is primarily formulated to be used in companies with 25 or more employees. This bill is intended to compel the employers to provide information about protected time off for domestic violence victims to all their employees.

All employers are required to avail this information to their employees upon hire and/or any other time that the employee would request. The bill was published and made effective on July 1, 2017, The following provisions are included in the employers’ handbooks with regard to the existing rights of their employees.

New Provisions

To start with, victims of domestic violence are allowed to take time off to obtain medical attention, seek psychological counseling, as well as any other services that are provided in the domestic violence programs. Secondly, employers are required to take any necessary action related to the safety of the employees.

For example, offering temporally shelter or allowing them to relocate. Lastly, all employers should ensure that the managers have a clear understanding of the employees’ rights, have the know-how on how to transmit this information to the human resource officers, as well as ability to handle such serious personal matters.

Personal Leave
Additionally, the bill allows employees to use their personal leave or vacation to seek assistance or plan for their safety. Employees should be given time off to obtain court or restraining order, which is intended to protect them and their families from domestic violence, stalking and sexual abuse. Most importantly, the law states that employees should be allowed to take time off to seek intervention for any domestic violence-related issues even if it means going on unpaid leave.

According to the Labor Commissioner’s office, this notice should be made available in Spanish and English languages. Moreover, employees should file a claim with the California Private Attorney General Act if they fail to receive a timely notice. In case of retaliation, discrimination or denial of domestic violence leave, employees are required to file a complaint against their employers with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Lolostock

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With each new year, new laws come to fruition from rulings and voting propositions of the previous year. Some of these new laws take several years to come into law because they need to be implemented in portions.

Expanding the minimum wage increase, made possible by the new laws, is going to aggressively change the California employment landscape. Not only are wages going to rise steeply over the next few years, but along with it, experts say costs of goods and services are going to skyrocket.

The enactment of the bill has two subset laws that will be going into place at different times. The two calendars increments are as follows: one for organizations with 25 or fewer employees and one for those with more than 25 workers. The state has posted a Fact Sheet in regards to the planned increments that employers can easily look up and learn more about to stay compliant.

Employee Restrooms

Starting March 1, 2017, organizations are disallowed from naming any “single-client bathroom office” as either “male” or “female.” AB 1732 characterizes “single-client can office” as “a can office without any than one water storeroom and one urinal with a locking system controlled by the client.”

Bosses must “illuminate every worker of his or her rights” upon contract and whenever from that point upon ask. The Labor Commissioner will build up a shape for these reasons and distribute it by July 1, 2017.

Getting Employee Information

The new laws restrict bosses from getting some information about or considering data identifying with captures, feelings, or different procedures that happened while a candidate or representative “was liable to the procedure and purview of juvenile court law.” Basically, if it happened while you were a minor, it is not to be taken into account during the hiring process or while employed with a company.

What would employers be able to do to prepare?

• Make beyond any reasonable doubt that HR staff, employing directors, and bosses comprehend the procedures before initiating them within the company or on any individual within the company.
• Stay up to date on the new laws for the upcoming years and put plans into action now that will allow them to stay ahead of them.
• Review pay practices to recognize potential incongruities in light of race and ethnicity, and gender. If disparities are noticed, fix them.
• Obtain and introduce proper signage for single-client restrooms to stay in accordance with the law.
• Ensure that applications don’t receive bias decisions based on the actions taken while the applicant was an adolescent.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Piotr Adamowicz

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California has the most expansive Fair Pay Act which covers different classes of people. The law discourages any form of discrimination in the workplace based on ethnicity or ace. For example, if individuals are performing the same task in an organization, they are supposed to be paid equality.

If you have employees who perform similar duties in your workplace, then you will not be allowed by law to pay them different wages. You should try as much as possible to ensure there is fairness in your workplace. If you are discovered to have engaged in any form of discrimination, legal actions may be taken against you.

Some of the cases under which you can pay workers different amounts of money include the following:

A seniority system

There are some employees who are senior in their workplace. For example, they may have worked or long in the organization hence they have climbed the ranks for them to become senior employees. If you have such a system in your workplace, then you can use the system for you to pay employees at different rates in your organization.

A merit system

There are several factors which can contribute towards the merit of your employees. For example, if you have an employee who has added qualifications, then buy merit you can decide to pay such an employee more money. You should have a well-defined system for you to gauge the merit of the employee for you to avoid breaking the law.

Quality and quantity for production

If you have a system in place which measures the equality or quantity of production, then you can base your payment on such a basis. If you have an employee who tends to deliver more for the organization, then the employee deserves to be paid more than others who are performing less. The system should be well defined so that you can know how to pay employees at different levels.

Education, training, and experience of the employer

You should base your payment system on a different factor other than race, sex, and ethnicity when trying to pay the employees. If you have an employee who has undergone several other training as a way of trying to improve his career, then the employee can be paid more than others who have not undergone the extra training.

Any reasons which you base to pay your employees should be based on the law rather than discrimination.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Billion Photos

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The other half of the country may be buried in snow, not so much in California. The golden state still battles heat related issues for workers in some industries. New mandated protections of break time to improve working conditions were added to the CA labor codes for this year, new labor law SB435.

Plenty of employees will be unaffected, but if you work outdoors performing a labor intensive job in southern California you should be aware of your rights to PAID break time. The CA office of Industrial Welfare is charged with the regulation of safe and healthy working conditions as well as fair wages in certain industries. Once SB435 was voted in, all employees are now required to have a paid rest period for every four hours they spend on the job, when possible this is to be near the middle of the four hour period in order to allow the worker time to cool down and recover from strenuous work.

The biggest change provided by the new law lies in the definition of that rest time. During the rest break no employee can be asked to perform ANY work related duties. If you are given your break from working on the production floor, they cannot require that you sit in the office and work on a desk job while you cool off.  The cool off period must also be separate from your lunch period.

It is not required that any employee working less than three hours get a break, but if you work more than four hours and have been repeatedly denied these breaks or not paid, you may be able to collect interest and penalties on top of the base time, overtime or double time you may be owed.

While you cannot be given any work to do during these rest periods, the company can dictate that you must stay on site because you are being paid. Because you are still “clocked in” your employer can require that you adhere to behavioral standards.  This means they have the right to tell you there is no smoking on the premises, which means if you are required to stay onsite during your break you may not smoke.

Certain exceptions do exist as usual, mostly pertaining to any 24 hour care and on-call workers in specific industries such as assisted living and care facilities. Because these laws tend to get more complicated the deeper you dig, the best defense you have is a knowledgeable Labor Attorney who knows them inside and out.

United Employees Law Group has a team of attorneys and support staff waiting to help you understand just what your rights are and we help employees collect every day. Call now and get the assistance you need.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Africa Studio

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Below are some of the instances where employers are faulted for not paying their employees for travel time:

• Assignment to make deposits at the bank as you leave work to go home.
• Collecting the mail on your way to your work place
• Demanding that an employee’s unpaid lunch time be used driving from place to place at work
• Demanding the presence of employees at the office before formal resumption at off-site locations and considering only time spent off site for their pay
• Having an employee pick up another to bring to work location.

While these points above are often noticed, the following also happen and are just as wrong:
In the case where employees have to drive around and work off site, sales representatives may have their locations varied from day to day. For good service rendering, it is necessary that these employees map out a good plan for the day prior to setting out. At certain times, they might need to access the company from home to find out about relevant details and also submit daily reports. In this case, the right thing is to have the pay start running as soon as the employee starts planning his day and end after his final reports have been sent in.

There are complexities with Labor law.  If you need help with some questions about your employment, a Fresno labor law attorney will be of help. In this case, the attorney should be able to understand what you want and are entitled to.
United Employees Law Group is here to assist you and we never charge a fee until we win your case.
For any question regarding this article or our blog post, you can call: Toll Free: 1-888-455-7434

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No, this is not a crazy movie with mind control and robots; though the title of Labor Enforcement Task Force may sound a little ominous, they are actually working to help improve conditions for hardworking employees. Also known as the LETF, it was put in place for the benefit of both employees and LEGAL businesses working to follow the letter of the law. This coalition of enforcement agencies within the California State government operates under the Department of Industrial Relations to help enforce work condition violations, wage violations and other illegal actions by companies working in what they call The Underground Economy.

Members of the LETF coalition include:

-The Division of Occupational Safety & Health

-The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement

-The Employment Development Department

-The Contractors State Licensing Board

– The California Department of Insurance

– The Board of Equalizations

– The Bureau of Automotive Repair

– The State Attorney General, and

-The Alcoholic Beverage Control agency (ATF).

One of the main objectives of this group is to weed out and crack down on companies operating without proper licenses, effectively working under the radar and avoiding paying proper taxes, carrying legal coverage for workers compensation, or following labor codes pertaining to minimum wage and other wage requirements for their employees. Businesses like these which operate without oversight create unsafe working conditions for employees, do not pay fair wages, and hurt the local business economy by doing so. This underground economy creates an imbalance where the legally operating businesses that pay the correct wages and follow rules for taxes and licensing are unable to match the low undercutting prices of the “black market” businesses. Because these illegal businesses pay no taxes, the government has a clear reason to support the coalition’s initiative, but you should too. When these underground businesses are shut down it means better wages and better, safer working conditions for employees as well.

While this “underground economy” is certainly an issue throughout the US, it is a HUGE industry here in California. Our State alone accounts for an estimated loss that could be as high as $28 BILLION a year from the lack of insurance, payroll taxes, income and business taxes and licensing. The numbers paint a clear picture as to why the Government wants to crack down on the businesses operating underground, but this kind of discrepancy in the economy places far too great a burden on the honest, legal companies not trying to abuse the system and the great resources of the Golden State.

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The MOU or Memorandum of Understanding is a directive which has been included in the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) and the California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) so that the employees are protected, and there is a new uniform system to regulate the classification of workers entitled to, and not entitled to, overtime pay in California.
Besides California, such agreements are done in many other states like Maryland, Montana, Massachusetts, Utah, Hawaii, Connecticut, Missouri, and Washington. The federal organizations and the state share the information so that they can help in gaining proper insights and assist in increasing the state as well as federal revenue by hiking the taxable income. In case an employee falls under the non-exempt category then they will be eligible for overtime payment which is taxable. Hence, the government too earns while you are doing overtime and getting paid for it.

This MOU came into existence after many cases where a company is located in one state but was working in another state. This was done so that the employer was saved from paying the employees the overtime rates which were mandatory in some states.
Often employers tried to skip paying overtime by labeling the employees as independent contractors. This has created issues in the economy of the nation. If an employee is classified as an independent contractor, the company is not liable to pay the employee overtime charges, medical benefits etc.

You need to bear a few things in mind. The first one is that in the state of California it is the employer’s responsibility to prove that you are not entitled to overtime pay. The next thing to remember is that the actual work profile needs to be considered to find out whether you are entitled to exemption or not. The employer has no say in this matter.

You can find out more about California Labor Laws from UELG where we are assisting people regularly. These people have been duped and conned by their employers. So get in touch with us and get a free and confidential evaluation of your case.

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Is it possible for Obama to Approve Permits for Undocumented Workers?

President Obama has recently announced that he would amend the Department of Homeland Security policy and make it possible for undocumented immigrants who had come into the country as children, to have the option to apply for a two year permit that would prevent deportation for those who had a permit.

Any undocumented immigrants would be able to apply for a permit if:

• They are under the age of 30
• Have lived in the United States for at least five years
• Where under the age of 16 when they illegally came to America
• They have a GED, High School Diploma, or equivalent, or currently serving or have previously served in the military.

Although the President has stated that this isn’t a permanent solution, it is more of a temporary fix until a long term solution is found by congress to fix this issue, and it isn’t a way to obtain legal citizenship. The permit can be renewed to an indefinite status and there will be bigger issues that remain.

So the actual question is if President Obama has the authority to pass this on his own.

California employees would certainly be affected by this order as California has a huge immigrant workforce, both illegal and legal. What does the US think of this as a possibility? There is 73% of the population who believe that the President should be working with the congress instead of trying to gain power and make all the executive orders on his own, whether or not they like the new policy. Although, 63% of the population who were polled do not want the permits to be granted at all.

The reasons for not wanting the policy granted is the job loss for legal residents as well as the policy being considered unconstitutional. This is a debate that could go on and on without any type of solution.

The debate will bring a lot of issues for California workers, and they have passed laws this year that can provide additional protection for employees who are immigrants, no matter what will happen in Washington.

If you have been discriminated against as an immigrant, UELG may be able to help you whether you are legal or not. Call Today!

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