On May 28, 2021, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a significant ruling in Magadia v. Wal-Mart Associates, Inc., on both California’s wage statement laws and standing to pursue claims under the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) in federal court. On the wage statement claims, the Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court, and found no technical wage...

A U.S. appeals court on June 10 heard oral arguments in a class-action case in which California truck drivers argued they should have been paid for nondriving work time, even while under a piece-rate basis agreement with a motor carrier to transport a load. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is being asked by the...

A customer of the Subway sandwich chain was cleared to proceed with her lawsuit against the company for incessantly texting her even after she asked them to stop. Marina Soliman filed the lawsuit in March of last year because she was receiving promotional text messages from the fast-food chain that she couldn’t opt out of. It all started when she...

Five women who have worked in various roles at Amazon are suing the company, citing racial and gender discrimination. In separate suits filed Wednesday, the diverse group of women, who worked either corporate positions or warehouse management and range in age from 23 to 64, each allege they faced retaliation by their white managers for complaining about the sexual harassment...

A lawsuit that claims one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers in California failed to provide required meal breaks for employees has moved to federal court, as attorneys seek class-action status. First filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in February, the case was removed to US District Court California, Northern District on Friday. Lovenia Scott, a former employee of the Vacaville,...

Proposition 22 in California allows companies like Uber Technologies and Lyft to continue classifying drivers as contract workers rather than full-time employees. It’s not clear whether that designation applies retroactively, and that poses a multibillion-dollar risk for investors. California’s attorney general and municipal officials from around the state have sued Uber (ticker: UBER) and Lyft (LYFT), attempting to claw back...

The California Supreme Court has ruled an employer cannot round the time an employee spends on their meal break to the nearest preset fraction of an hour. The court further held that time records showing noncompliant meal periods raise a rebuttable presumption of meal period violations. Meal Breaks: The Basics A California employer generally must provide nonexempt employees with the...

On April 16, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 93 into law. The law requires employers to offer open job positions to employees who were previously laid off due to COVID-19-related reasons and adds records retention and notice requirements. The law takes effect immediately and is effective until December 31, 2024. At the outset, the new measure requires...

Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy companies face a new challenge from the Biden administration to their use of contract workers, but as they gear up for a fight in Washington they could turn to a lobbying playbook that helped them score a decisive win against California regulators last year. U.S. President Joe Biden campaigned on the promise of providing legal...

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted on March 29, 2021 the California Chamber of Commerce’s (CalChamber) motion for a preliminary injunction, halting new lawsuits to enforce the Proposition 65 warning requirement for acrylamide in food and beverages. (See: California Chamber of Commerce v. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General of the State of California.) Proposition 65, or the...