Employment Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Clara, CA A Wells Fargo's $6.5 million California labor class action wage-and-hour settlement involving about 27,500 workers may be a good deal for the class reps and plaintiffs’ lawyers, but employees may be getting shortchanged – again.

Washington, DC Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS/PFOA) foams have been a staple of military and civilian firefighting operations for sixty years. But their usefulness in fighting liquid fuel fires comes at a steep price for the planet and human health.

San Jose, CA On November 11, the District Court for the Northern District of California is expected to approve a settlement in Reichert v. Juniper Networks Inc. The class action ERISA lawsuit, like many before it, alleges that the fiduciaries of the Juniper Networks, Inc. 401(k) Plan breached their legal duty to plan participants because of the way that they managed the participants’ retirement savings.

San Francisco, CA Instacart is settling a misclassification complaint claiming that the gig company violated the California labor code by misclassifying its workers, known as “shoppers” as independent contractors instead of employees. (Shoppers gather groceries in stores for customers and sometimes deliver them.) The city of San Diego claimed Instacart misclassified its shoppers as independent contractors in order to avoid paying them benefits.

Santa Clara, CA A new California labor bill, which takes effect next January 2023, will require employers with over 15 employees to list pay and salary ranges on all job postings. The Senate Bill 1162  is key to achieving pay equity and the lack of pay transparency has disproportionately affected both people of color and female employees, according to proponents of the bill.

Sacramento, CA  Frontier Management LLC will pay $9.5 million to settle a California labor lawsuit brought by roughly 1,000 workers who were not paid for work required before they clocked in, after they clocked out and during meal breaks. Wright v. Frontier Management, as originally filed, alleged nine causes of action under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the California Labor Code and the California Business and Professions Code. Claims under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) were added thereafter. The senior care industry is notorious  for wage and hour violations and has been the subject of federal and California investigations.

Santa Clara, CA Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co has agreed to settle a proposed class action that accused the tech giant of paying women less than men. The settlement stems from a California labor lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior County in November 2018, claiming the company violated the California Equal Pay Act and Unfair Competition Law by systematically paying its female employees less than similarly situated men.

New York, NY A Filipino nurse has filed a complaint against his employer, Advanced Care Staffing LLC, which recruits foreign nurses for U.S. health care facilities. In his employment lawsuit filed in New York federal court, Benzor Shem Vidal claims that the staffing company forced him to sign an illegal, "predatory" arbitration agreement that threatened to financially ruin him after he quit working at a nursing home.

Santa Clara, CA The Seattle office of the National Labor Relations Board in August filed a labor law complaint against Starbucks for failing to offer wage increases and some benefits to unionized workers. The company says it cannot give its new financial savings perks to staff at about 300 stores that have “union activity”. A similar scenario may well play out for the California workers who voted to unionize (see below).

Santa Clara, CATwo citrus workers asked a California federal court to keep their proposed California labor class action against a citrus company alive. They allege that Bee Sweet did fully pay wages and travel time pay and did not provide rest periods.