Labor & Employment Law Blog

On Friday, May 29, 2020, the California Department of Public Health approved Los Angeles County’s variance request to move further into Stage Two of the California Resiliency Roadmap, allowing Los Angeles County restaurants to provide in-person dining service and hair salons and barbershops to reopen.

On May 12, 2020, the Oakland City Council approved an ordinance establishing emergency paid sick leave for Oakland employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Oakland now joins several other jurisdictions in California in taking action to supplement the emergency sick leave already provided by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

The City of Long Beach, California enacted a new supplemental paid sick leave ordinance on May 19, 2020, which is effective immediately.  The ordinance applies to employers with 500 or more employees nationally and excludes those who are required to provide paid sick leave benefits under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act. 

On May 19, 2020, the United States District Court for the Central District of California rejected a challenge to a provision of Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”) applicable to construction trucking companies. (Western States Trucking Ass’n v. Becerra, et al., 5:19-CV-02447-CAS (KKx) (5-18-2020)).

On May 7, 2020, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-63-20, which allows reprieve for a number of labor-related administrative functions performed by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), the Division of Workers’ Compensation, and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).  

Last week, officials for the County of Los Angeles and the City and County of San Francisco announced that they will be allowing certain businesses to resume operations.

To assist employees in making informed healthcare decisions and employers in providing employees with the required notice of their rights, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued revised model COBRA notices reflecting COBRA’s interaction with Medicare.  

In an effort to provide employers with more tools to make their workplace safe, the EEOC gave the green light on Thursday April 23, 2020, to test employees for COVID-19.  This announcement comes on the heels of guidance issued last week that confirmed that employers may take temperatures and make inquiries of their employees relating to symptoms of COVID-19. 

We recently discussed San Francisco’s efforts to stay On The Cutting Edge Of The Cutting Edge with regard to Paid Sick Leave, but now both San Francisco and San Jose have passed new employee leave ordinances setting the bar even higher.

In an age discrimination case filed by a federal Department of Veterans Affairs employee, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a federal employee or applicant may establish that an adverse personnel action took place by showing that their age was simply a “motivating factor” in the federal employer’s decision.  Babb v. Wilkie 589 U.S. __ (2020).