Labor Laws, virtually every state has them, and all employers must comply with both state and federal labor laws.
I must confess that I love California. It is one of the most beautiful states that a person could ever live in. We have beaches, and mountains, and lots of fun things to do. However, we also have labor laws and a bunch of them are not employer friendly.
The truth is California is one of the most employer unfriendly states to there is. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report entitled “Legal Climate Overall Rankings By State” California came in third from the top when it comes to employee lawsuits. This is not good news for employers please check out the brief video for more on this.
In case you were wondering what cities are the worst offenders in one of the worst states as far as the legal climate is concerned Los Angeles and San Francisco made the list of cities or counties that had the least fair and reasonable litigation environment, this is according to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). In addition to that California plays it very loose when it comes to employee class action lawsuits.
As an example California allows wage and hour lawsuits over:
- inadvertent record keeping violations, and requires inflated mandatory damages awards.
- and requires inflated mandatory damages awards
If you are an employer this is not news to you. California Work Laws have been getting worse for years, even as all the reports mentioned in this article will demonstrate. However there is a silver lining going into 2016.
Senate Bill 3 Died in the assembly committee If this bill had passed the new minimum wage would have been $13.00 per hour which would have been a real jobs killer. With a lot of business struggling here in California this is really very good news.
Labor Laws and you the employer.
One of the best things you can do is to be proactive when it comes to compliance. One of the worst things you can do as an employer is to bury your head in the sand, and hope that you will not be affected. Now is a great time to take a look at your employee handbook and make sure that it is written in a way that will help you. Since failing to pay attention to the new labor laws and or choosing not to comply with them, can cost you a lot of money in California it makes both dollars and sense to be proactive. One of the ways employers can protect protect themselves is by establishing both fair and equitable policies, that spell out what you expect from your employees and also what they can expect from you.
Another thing you can do is stop taking short cuts, if your employee works overtime than pay him. Strongly encourage your employees to take their lunches and if they don’t or can’t, have them sign a meal waiver that clearly establishes that it is the policy of the company for employees to take their meal period, but if they are unable to and want to waive their meal period they can at their discretion.
Pay attention to the laws that have been on the books for a while as well as the newest labor laws and comply with them. For example the new paid sick leave law that went became law in July of 2015. This law has a lot of roots to it that will affect your company’s employee handbook so make sure that you have it right.
In conclusion you can win in the battle to get and stay in compliance with California Work Laws and I can promise you it is worth the investment of your time and a few of your dollars to make sure your rights as employers are protected.
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Resources:
http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/states
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=lab