Bill Tracking Update

AB 48 - is in the senate, appears headed for passage.
AB 640 - failed passage in the committee, appears dead.
AB 875 - being ameneded in senate
AB 879 - ready for a floor vote in the senate, appears headed for passage

SB 101 - In Assembly, headed for a floor vote and headed for passage.
SB 174 - In committee.
SB 184 - Headed for a floor vote, appears ready to pass.
SB 285 - appears to be dead
SB 862 - appears to be dead
SB 940 - In committee in assembly.

DLSE Precedential Opinion: Meal, Rest Period Violations Are Penalties

The DLSE has issued its first precedential decision (instead of posting letters) holding that (1) violations of meal and rest periods are penalities not wages, and (2) you can't get waiting time penalties on same.

The decision is available here.

Megan's Law and Negligent Hiring

Fisher & Phillips has this piece on the effect of Megan's law on negligent hiring. Interesting read.

Make Over on Makeup case?

I don't usually blog federal cases, but I found it interesting that the Ninth Circuit agreed to rehear en banc the Harrah's case. The Bakersfield Californian has more.

Body art in the workplace

The OC Register has this article on piercings/tatoos in the workplace. It's interesting in that it shows that in Orange County's tightening labor market that less employers care, while some worry about perception even still.

Question: would discriminating against someone who has a tatoo be illegal, if, say, that person was Polynesian? (The recent Ninth Circuit ruling made it clear that certain appearance requirements are ok, but what about when it's cultural?)

Wierd Economy

GDP growth is solid. Inflation is nil. (In fact, it was -0.1% this month). Interest rates are still at historical lows, despite a series of hikes (yet these hikes are not directly mirrored in all of the lending markets).

It sounds like we should be having a boom, but we're not. Today's initial unemployment claims were up again, outpacing the expert's predictions. And the economy has failed to produce many jobs, with some months better than others, but none stellar. And the stock market is agnostic as well.

There are some other wierd factors, like long term treasuries being lower than shorter term rates. What is the bond market saying about this economy? Is this all caused by the deficit?

What's going on here?

My lay opinion is that our fiscal realignment in the last 5 years has produced an increasingly rentier based economy, which would at least explain the lagging job growth during a period of GDP growth.

For employers, this means, applying my hypothesis, that this should be a time when all HR decisions are given extra care, because jobs are still hard to come by, and people in desperate straits may look favorably at the chance to recover in a lawsuit.

DLSE Depublished Partial-Day PTO Rule

Via Sheppard Mullin's blog, the DLSE has depublished their "controversial" opinion letter regarding, among other things, the use of partial day PTO or vacations by exempt employees.

A Rise In Wage and Hour Lawsuits?

Via The Employment Law Bulletin: the Christian Science Monitor reports that attorneys are starting to more actively pursue wage violations in many states. The article attributes this to the rise in service sector jobs. Is that it, or is it the decrease in union representation that might solve it in-house? Just curious.

Trop v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.

Plaintiff's statements that she had a fibroid removed and that she was hoping to become pregnant did not establish that employer was aware of pregnancy, and employee’s statement to employer at Christmas party that "[i]t looks like I get to have one of these," referring to a baby, was too ambiguous to place employer on notice of pregnancy. (However, the court notes in a footnote that Plaintiff didn't complain she was fired for attempting to become pregnant.)

2d Dist., Div. 5 No. B174101

(No free advice this Wednesday, I'm off to a conference)

King v. Tri-City Medical Center

This one is really more for the "interesting and sort of funny" file than for the practice hotsheet. The plaintiff checked the wrong box on her DFEH complaint, and, as a result, the Court of Appeal held that her case was dead.

While it's amazing how much a little checkbox can matter, it's also amazing how much courts can disagree. Courts have gone the other way too.