California Labor Law Legal News Articles & Interviews

Los Angeles, CA After an eight-week trial and two days of deliberations, Farmers Group Inc. has been cleared of discrimination and wrongful termination charges. Former California-based insurance agents claimed they were discriminated against for their age and fired to be replaced by younger, ostensibly more productive workers. However, jurors determined that, because the four plaintiffs were independent contractors, Farmers Group did not violate California employment law.

San Francisco, CAIn John Ordono et al. v Marriott International Inc., San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan P. Schulman has tentatively found that banquet servers were entitled to $8.97 million because reasonable customers might have concluded that mandatory service charges were intended as gratuities. Under California Labor Code 351, gratuities or tips belong to employees, and employers may not take them or deduct any amount from a worker's wages.

Santa Clara, CA A class action lawsuit alleging the Five Guys violated California labor laws by denying its workers breaks and overtime pay has reached a fifth proposed settlement. The $1.2 million deal involves 2,206 non-exempt workers at the gourmet burger chain.

San Francisco, CA A former Twitter employee has filed a California labor complaint accusing the social media platform of violating the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, the California WARN Act and the California labor code by failing to give workers requisite notice of companywide layoffs.

Sacramento, CA In February, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts California Assembly Bill 51 (AB51). These sections of California labor law were designed to protect employees from having to choose between a job and the legal right to have disputes resolved in court. The law has been a target of employer groups since it was enacted in 2019.

Santa Clara, CA Current and former employees of California-based Community Hospice Inc. have filed a class action lawsuit asking nearly $5 million in alleged unpaid wages during the COVID pandemic. The complaint also alleges meal and rest periods were not provided. Plaintiffs allege that they were required to work even when they were clocked out for meal times and were denied rest periods for some shifts. And there are more complaints, including racial discrimination.

San Francisco, CA A  Grubhub delivery driver, who accused the food delivery company in 2015 of withholding minimum wage and overtime pay from drivers and that drivers are owed reimbursements for costs accrued through deliveries has been awarded $65.11 – yes, and eleven cents—for California minimal wage violation. The judge ruled that the gig driver was a Grubhub employee and not an independent contractor. That $65.11 award, however, could have implications for the gig economy.

Santa Clara, CA West Marine Products has likely learned that it doesn’t pay to stiff your employees for overtime pay and meal breaks. After it was hit with to California labor lawsuits, the boating supply products company went after its insurer to cover the lawsuits.

Sacramento, CA Last year nearly 19,000 workers filed claims with the state of California for at least $338 million in lost or stolen wages alleging wage theft by their employers. But the Golden State consistently breaks its own law by not meeting deadlines for resolving cases. The Labor Commissioner’s office has provided data that shows many California lost wages claims take three times longer than the legal minimum of 135 days to resolve.

Santa Clara, CA Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s are accused of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act and several California labor codes, including minimum wage and overtime pay, and the state's unlawful business practices statute. This latest wage and hour complaint is at the least the third wage and hour class action lawsuit brought against Macy’s since 2011.