Articles, news & legal alerts

Read the latest news from Scali Rasmussen, including legal alerts and event listings.

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Last week, the Court of Appeal ordered the publication of its employer-friendly opinion affirming the denial of class certification in an employment wage and hour case. In Cacho v. Eurostar, the two plaintiffs took the position that their former employer maintained meal and rest break policies that violated California law because they did not address an employee’s entitlement to 1) take a first meal break within the first five hours of work, 2) take a second meal break on shifts over 10 hours, or 3) take a third rest break on shifts over 10 hours. They also argued that, since an earlier version of the employee handbook erroneously stated that employees were entitled to a rest break on shifts of at least four hours – instead of on shifts of at least 3.5 hours – class certification of their rest break claim was appropriate. The Court upheld the lower court’s findings that: 1) the employer’s written meal break policies did not evidence a uniform unlawful policy that would be appropriate to decide on a classwide basis, and 2) the employer did not have a uniform practice of denying required rest breaks.

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Employers who utilize employment arbitration agreements have been preparing to issue new arbitration agreement forms effective January 1, 2020 in light of the new law (AB 51), which prohibits employers from requiring employees or prospective employees to sign agreements mandating arbitration of claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) or the Labor Code. But employers may hold off on issuing these new AB 51-compliant agreements for now.

CCPA and vendors

What you need to know

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Many automotive vendors rely on accessing automotive dealers’ customer data to provide services as varied as lead generation, vehicle tracking, and customer service. Under the CCPA, dealers may be held liable if any vendor misuses customer data or experiences a data breach. Each vendor that uses your customer data therefore has the potential to steeply increase your potential liability, particularly in light of the fact that you cannot directly control the vendor’s data use or data security practices.

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Although a year-end Company “holiday” party is a nice opportunity for employers to show their appreciation to employees for their work over the course of the year, these events are a perennial HR headache as the legal risks abound if employers are not careful. Here are some tips for planning such events that apply any time of the year.

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This year, Governor Newsom signed several bills into law that affect California employers, many of which take effect on January 1, 2020. Though most of these laws do not explicitly instruct employers to update their handbooks, some may invalidate provisions that are contained in existing employee handbooks, written policies or other documents provided to employees, such as pay plans. Here are a few things to keep in mind...

Monica Baumann published in Automotive News

Dealerships must safeguard customer data

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Automotive News turned to Scali Rasmussen attorney Monica Baumann for this article about the California Consumer Privacy Act. The most aggressive consumer-privacy law in the country, the CCPA goes into effect January 1, 2020.

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The California Department of Industrial Relations announced the new minimum salary threshold for exempt computer professionals. Effective January 1, 2020, a computer professional must receive a salary of no less than $96,968.33 per year ($8,081.71 monthly) in order to qualify for the white collar exemption. This increase reflects the 2.5% increase in the California Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers over the minimum threshold from 2019.

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