Category Archives: Labor Law

This category examines California’s union and labor organizing laws.

Governor Brown Raises California Minimum Wage

Governor Brown Raises Minimum Wage in CaliforniaGovernor Edmund Brown will join business owners, legislators and dozens of working Californians tomorrow in Los Angeles and Oakland to sign AB 10 by Assemblymember Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), which will raise the minimum wage in California from $8.00 per hour to $10.00 per hour.

AB 10 will raise California’s minimum wage in two one-dollar increments, from $8 per hour today to $9 per hour, effective July 1, 2014 and from $9 per hour to $10 per hour, effective January 1, 2016.

Specifically, AB 10 will amend Section 1182.12 of the Labor Code is amended to read:

1182.12.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, on and after July 1, 2014, the minimum wage for all industries shall be not less than nine dollars ($9) per hour, and on and after January 1, 2016, the minimum wage for all industries shall be not less than ten dollars ($10) per hour.

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Filed under Labor Law, Minimum Wage, Wages and Hours

Your Employee File – An Employment Lawyer’s Perspective

Employee Personnel File Employment Attorney Request Employee FileAll current and former employees have the right to inspect and copy their employment file. Every employment attorney knows this fact. But what exactly are your rights? What are you entitled too? Can your company refuse?

California Labor Code section 1198.5(a) states:

Every current and former employee, or his or her representative, has the right to inspect and receive a copy of the personnel records that the employer maintains relating to the employee’s performance or to any grievance concerning the employee.

Generally, an employer must comply with your request within 30 days. If they fail to do so you should contact an experienced employment lawyer.

What must the employer give the employee?

According to Labor Code section 432 and the Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH) employers are required to give an employee or job applicant, upon request, a copy of any instrument that the employee or applicant has signed relating to the obtaining or holding of employment.

Moreover, files that are generally considered to be “personnel records” are those that are used to determine an employee’s qualifications for promotion, pay raises, or disciplinary action, including termination. The DFEH has some examples of “personnel records” it believes should be disclosed:

  1. Application for employment
  2. Payroll authorization form
  3. Notices of commendation, warning, discipline, and/or termination
  4. Notices of layoff, leave of absence, and vacation
  5. Notices of wage attachment or garnishment
  6. Education and training notices and records
  7. Performance appraisals/reviews
  8. Attendance records

What happens if my employer refused to disclose my file?

An employer who violates, refuses, or neglects to comply with an employee’s right of inspection is guilty of a misdemeanor. Labor Code Section 1199(c). Despite this law, it is rare than an employer will go to jail for this. However, you may try to get penalties via section 1198.5(k), which states:

If an employer fails to permit a current or former employee, or his or her representative, to inspect or copy personnel records within the times specified in this section…the current or former employee…may recover a penalty of seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) from the employer.

Employment Attorney – What about my payroll records?

According to Labor Code section 226(b), employers are required to permit current and former employees to inspect or copy payroll records pertaining to that current or former employee. An employer who receives a written or oral request from a current or former employee for his or her payroll records shall comply with the request within 21 calendar days.

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Branigan Robertson is a California employment lawyer who exclusively represents employees in workplace disputes. He focuses his practice on sexual harassment, wage & hour, wrongful termination, and retaliation. Visit his website at BRobertsonLaw.com or call his office at 949.667.3025.

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Filed under Discharge & Layoffs, Employment Records, Labor Law, Uncategorized

California Bar Association Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference

CalBar Annual Employment Law Conference For the past two days I’ve been sharpening my skills at the 30th Annual California Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Conference.

I’ll have lots of information to post in the near future!

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Branigan Robertson is a California employment lawyer who exclusively represents employees in workplace disputes. He focuses his practice on sexual harassment, wage & hour, wrongful termination, and retaliation. Visit his website at BRobertsonLaw.com or call his office at 949.667.3025.

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Filed under Labor Law, Lawsuits & Lawyers

Hostess Brands vs. Employee Pensions – Will Twinkies Die?

I’m not ashamed to admit that I ate a Twinkie the other day. It was my first Twinkie in about three years. It melted in my mouth and tickled warm memories of my childhood. I enjoyed it immensely. I told myself that I need to eat more of those delicious yellow cream-filled cakes, but sadly that soon might not be possible.

The maker of Twinkies, Hostess Brands, is bankrupt. Hostess owes more than a billion dollars to creditors. The bakers’ union pension fund was the biggest creditor, owed $994 million. Usually, bankruptcy isn’t a big deal for consumers such as myself, because companies continue to make and sell their products through the bankruptcy proceedings. Usually the company emerges from bankruptcy a more financially sound enterprise because the court discharges debt and other unsavory financial obligations. Well, Hostess Brands is asking the bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y. to tear up its labor agreements, which would allow Hostess to change how it funds union pensions. If it continues to fund them as it has been the company will run out of money.

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Filed under Employee Benefits, Health Benefits, Health Care, Labor Law

Disparging Your Employer on Twitter

Disparging your employer on twitterA National Labor Relations Board report released last week attempts to explain the changing legal standards for social media usage in the workplace. It highlights a few of its administrative decisions regarding Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms.  One of the decisions interested me enough to re-post it here.

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Filed under Defamation, Discharge & Layoffs, Human Resources, Labor Law, Retaliation, Social Media