employment attorney

GrubHub Ruling Will Drive Future of Gig Economy

February 18, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

With the fast-paced growth of the gig economy, the line between independent contractors and employees has become more and more blurred. This has led to employee misclassification lawsuits filed by workers, claiming employers have taken advantage of their independent contractor status.

Those lawsuits could have a more clear outcome after U.S. District Court for the California Northern District filed a decision in a lawsuit against GrubHub Inc., according to Los Angeles Times. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley Judge ruled GrubHub’s drivers are independent contractors and should not be classified as employees, and therefore will not receive the perks that come with that identifier.

Maintaining a workforce primarily made up of independent contractors is at the heart of the gig economy. Services like Uber, Lyft, Grub, Postmates, and others will often identify their companies as services that connect customers with contractors, rather than the providers of those services. That way they can work around supporting a staff of employees, and reap the benefits of massive cost reductions. Meanwhile, drivers and delivery people are beholden to the companies they contract for while being burdened with costs associated with the work they do without reimbursement. Continue Reading ›

Tipped Employees Might Have to Share Tips Under Proposed Rule

February 15, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

Anyone who has ever waited tables knows how valuable a good tip is. It brings the wages of tipped employees up, makes it possible for restaurant owners to keep food prices reasonable, and gives workers an incentive to work during extra busy and stressful shifts throughout the week.

U.S. Department of Labor defines tipped employees as those who regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. Such employees, depending on the state, can be paid a minimum of $2.13 per hour, as opposed to the traditional federal minimum wage of $7.25. The tips that are used to bring tipped employees up to minimum wage are known as a tip credit. If the employee does not make enough in tips to meet the federal minimum wage standard, the employer must make up the difference, according to 29 U.S. Code § 203 (m).

California, however, is a bit different in that the state requires employers to pay full minimum wage before tips. The state’s minimum wage is also higher than national, ranging from $10.50 (for employers with fewer than 26 employees) to $11 (26 or more employees). Continue Reading ›

Washington Supreme Court: Firefighter Axed for Religious Messages Can Sue

February 14, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

Many companies have employment policies in place to help separate people’s personal lives from the workplace. Limiting personal calls, restricting social media use on company computers, forbidding offensive materials from being displayed in work spaces and not allowing company resources to be used for personal gain or to spread personal messages — all of these are common practices. It is permissible and necessary for offices to limit such activities to keep workers focused, reduce wasteful spending, and prevent a hostile work environment.

However, problems can arise when managers selectively choose who can and cannot engage in such activities, with only certain people being punished. At best, a company can cause resentment among employees by singling out individuals for actions that are also being committed by others. At worst, they could find themselves in court for violating the First Amendment.

This is in line with the perspective of the Washington Supreme Court, where justices recently filed an opinion in the case against the fire department in eastern Washington. The court determined that a former fire captain, who was terminated after sending religious messages using a company forum, was denied his First Amendment rights to free speech and can sue for damages. Continue Reading ›

New Year, New Laws Affect Employment in California

January 15, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

Big changes have arrived in the state of California in the new year, many of which will have a direct impact on employers and their employees.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently documented a run-down of the biggest additions to state law and how they will change life in California in 2018 and beyond.

The list included everything from the new recreational cannabis laws, protections for women in the workplace, as well as employee rights for criminals.

While some of these changes have obvious and direct effects on the workplace, others are less clear, particularly the legalization of recreational marijuana, which quickly has turned into one of the biggest stories of the year. Continue Reading ›

Employment Discrimination Increases for LGBTQ People of Color

January 3, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

For many California residents, employment discrimination is an all too common part of life, with experiences ranging from subtle biases to outright threats, violence or loss of opportunities to advance.

Certain groups receive the brunt of this treatment more than others: Women, the elderly, people of color, LGBTQ community members, those from certain foreign nations or followers of some religions. But the discrimination compounds for people who fit more than one of these categories. This inter-sectional discrimination can be seen in particular among people in a racial minority group as well as the LGBTQ community.

According to a recent poll by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, NPR, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, people of color said they had been discriminated against at twice the rate as white respondents for being LGBTQ when applying for jobs, as well as in police interactions. Continue Reading ›

Employee Misclassification Cases Hitting Gig Economy Where it Hurts

December 31, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

“Gig” employment, also known as the, “sharing economy,” has exploded across the country, with increasingly more services following in the footsteps of the likes of Uber and Grubhub. These businesses often use apps to connect workers with customers for one-time services. These companies amass an eager base of workers who sign up for shifts as able, delivering groceries, transporting passengers, and more.

Many workers view gig employment as a flexible and easy way to earn extra money, while employers view it as a cheap way to staff a robust labor pool.

However this dynamic has led to a growing number of employee misclassification lawsuits as the debate comes to a boil as to whether these workers are independent contactors or employees (with all the rights that employees receive). Continue Reading ›

Employee Misclassification Issues in Los Angeles

December 8, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

Employee misclassification is a major issue faced by workers in Orange County and in the Greater Los Angeles area. This is an issue taken very seriously by the state as the legislature passed Senate Bill 459 in 2011 to provide penalties to employers for willfully misclassifying employees. This law is enforced by the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), and there are fines of no less than $5,000 and no more than $25,000 per offense.

Employee misclassification involves the act of willfully treating an employee as an independent contractor for the purpose of avoiding the payment of overtime wages, workers’ compensation, and employment benefits afforded to full-time employees. This is a serious violation that occurs frequently in many industries including farming, and the newer so-called “on demand” or “gig” economy. Continue Reading ›

California High Court Rules in Favor of Farm Works

December 1, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

Labor contracts can involve very complicated issues. When dealing with unions, there is the use of collective bargaining to create contracts that bind the employer and the employees. As the nation increasingly moves toward a so-called “right-to-work” system in many jurisdictions, employers are doing whatever they can to take that collective power away from employees. According to a recent news article from The Los Angeles Times, the California State Supreme Court has just issued a ruling that allows the state to essentially force farm workers and unions to enter in binding agreements.

To understand this issue, it is necessary to look at the recent history, and how this all came about. For the past several decades, the largest produce company in the state and the United Farm Workers union had been fighting about whether the union could be de-certified. There have been many cases and arbitration agreements over the past 20 or so years on this issue. Continue Reading ›

Employers Think Past Salary Question Ban Isn’t Going to Work

November 18, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

Recently, California enacted legislation designed to remove some of the traditional barriers to employment. The new law bans most employers from asking about criminal history and past salary history in an initial application. Once an applicant has been offered a position, a criminal background check may be performed for certain occupations, but the idea behind the law is to put all applicants on equal footing during the hiring process. It is far too easy for an employer to skip over an applicant with a criminal history. The ban on asking about salary history is designed to require employers to make a salary offer based upon the demands of the position and the strength of the applicant. If the prospective employer knows how much an applicant was making before, they would know the base amount an employee took in the past and this would let them make a lower offer in many cases.

As is discussed in a recent article from the Los Angeles Times, that stated reason for banning asking about salary history, among others, is to narrow the gender gap in pay. To get an idea of the actual pay gender gap, we can look to data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research which shows that while women make up nearly half of the entire workforce, the gap is still very much in existence and women earn on average, 80 cents on the dollar as compared to a man in the same or similar job. Continue Reading ›

LA Area Resort Workers Alleged Wage Hour Violations

October 29, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

Wage and hour disputes are one of the most prevalent issues handled by Los Angeles employment attorneys. Yet another California wage-and-hour dispute was reported by LA Weekly, which revealed workers at high-dollar resort allege being financially swindled by their employer.

These workers, all employed in the restaurant and hospitality industry, allege that while working on the more than 100-acre, ritzy Los Angeles area resort they were forced to cut meal periods shorter than the allotted time, clock in for less time than they were actually working and forced to take shuttles from their employee parking area to the resort without compensation, even though this was a very time consuming process and no alternative was offered. Continue Reading ›