Friday, April 9, 2021
While California has announced tentative plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions by June 15, 2021, the difficulties for employers are not over.
For much of the COVID-19 pandemic, California struggled to get infection rates under control, and businesses grappled with compliance with a multitude of COVID-19-specific statutes and regulations. Employers also were tasked with navigating existing California employment laws, which did not contemplate a worldwide pandemic.
Workplace Safety
In November 2020, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal OSHA) passed the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). The ETS imposed certain minimum requirements for covered workplaces, including:
Implementation of written COVID-19 prevention programs and measures
Preparing California Workers to Return to the Worksite shrm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from shrm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The regulatory framework that applies to California is complex and ever-changing. Even the most diligent employers can find themselves unintentionally out of compliance in ways both big and small. And California provides many avenues for employees to bring claims challenging that noncompliance, including administrative complaints, private individual or class action lawsuits, and actions under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
The following summarizes the most frequently missed requirements when employees are situated in the Golden State. Consulting with experienced California employment counsel is worth the relatively small investment when compared to the potential headaches and costs associated with compliance mistakes.
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Last week, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Marin Counties joined several other northern California counties in the less restrictive Orange Tier under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy Tier System. Effective March 31, 2021, several other counties, including Alameda, Santa Cruz and the Southern California counties of Los Angeles and Orange, joined them. With this move, some non-essential indoor businesses in these counties, including office-based workspaces, are now permitted to re-open, subject to necessary modifications (and subject to approval by local county public health departments). It has been over one year since offices were forced to close under state and local stay at home orders in these areas, and although much of Southern California remains in the Red Tier, this move is a positive sign that life may soon return to pre-pandemic normal in California. But as businesses get ready to bring employees back to work, there are many cons
Jessica Brown, Black Employees Alliance photo courtesy LinkedIn
On March 15, 2021, the Black Employees Alliance and the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) based on public records data from 2012 to 2020 and alleged disparities in discipline, pay and raises.
The groups also alerted the City of San Francisco’s Ethics Commission.
San Francisco’s city employee workforce is 36,000 and Black people make up 12% of that, approximately 4,320 Black city employees.
The Black Employees Alliance has 410 members.
Based on the data, the complaint also alleged that there were pay and bonus disparities between white and Asian managers and Black managers data showed that Black city employees were the subject of 21% of the discipline and corrective actions.