Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog

Uber Drivers: Employees or Independent Contractors?

June 15, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

The economy is doing better than it has in years. One of the main benefits of a stronger economy is a lower rate of unemployment.

As it turns out, employment is up in California and across the nation. This will in turn drive the economy further, as people will have more disposable income to spend on consumer products.

However, this recent upturn in the local and national economy is somewhat different than previous periods of economic prosperity. One major difference has to with an increase in the type of employment we are seeing. In the past, greater production lead to more manufacturing jobs. When the economy shifted to outsourced production and services in the 1990s, we saw more sales and marketing jobs and other service-based forms of employment.

Fight to Raise State Minimum Wage to $13/HR in California

June 12, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

The City of Los Angeles has just passed what many consider a landmark minimum wage bill for all wage earners working within city limits. This is a huge step for residents of the city, but it is not the first example of a city minimum wage law. Los Angeles has simply decided to follow in the footsteps of other major metropolitan areas around the county, upon the realization that a state minimum wage is not a living wage in their cities, and lowest income workers are not able to travel great distances each day to work for the state minimum wage.

However, these minimum wage hikes will not be of any help to workers who are employed outside of the city, including unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County. According to a recent news report for the Orange County Register, state lawmakers are now engaged in a major battle over whether or not to raise the statewide minimum wage to $13 per hour by the year 2017. Continue Reading ›

LA Home Healthcare Workers Without Pay

June 9, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Sometimes, when an employer withholds pay from an employee, it is because an employer is intentionally and willful committing wage theft. Other times, we are dealing with an accounting or payroll error, which results in accidental withholding of wages. Regardless of the cause, the situation still leaves many workers who are in desperate need of a paycheck without money to survive and take care of themselves and their families. It is not as if their bill collectors and landlords will simply allow them to pay late without accruing any penalties or defaults, because their employer is withholding wages.

According to a recent news article from the LA Times, many home-care workers have been waiting weeks for their paychecks. This incident involves over 40,000 workers who are employed by a taxpayer-funded program to serve as home-care workers in Los Angeles County. The program was designed to pay these workers to provide much needed home care for elderly and disabled California residents who live in low-income households.

The employees are required to complete their scheduled shifts and then submit a paper timesheet to the project processing center. It has not been said why this process has never been switched over to an online based reporting system, like most other state and federal programs. Continue Reading ›

California Moves Forward with Worker Wage Theft Bill

June 6, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Employee wage theft is a serious problem in California. The problem is one that can affect all workers, but the many foreign-born workers in California are disproportionately affected, as unscrupulous employers may take advantage of workers who do not speak fluent English.

According to a recent news article from the Monterey Herald, California state legislatures have advanced a “wage theft” bill to protect workers. Specifically, Senate Bill 588 (SB 588), a proposal that passed by 24 to 12 vote, makes it easier for the state to collect wages owed to workers. The bill allows the state labor commissioner to file a lien on the property of an employer who is illegally withholding wages from an employee. Continue Reading ›

Harvey Milk Remembered on Birthday for Fight to End Job Discrimination in California

June 1, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Many younger residents of California only know about the life of Harvey Milk from the movie in which Milk was portrayed by Sean Penn. While that movie did a good job telling the story of Milk’s life and work, many in California benefited from his efforts long before they even knew anything about him.

According to a recent feature from Huffington Post, many in California, especially in the LGBT community, are celebrating Milk’s life on the week of what would have been his 85^th birthday. Milk had run without success three times before becoming elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. The main platform of each of his campaigns was to create laws to protect workers form employment discrimination due to their sexual orientation.

When Milk chose to run for represent the eastern half of the city on the state assembly he was defeated by Art Agnos. Agnos pledged he would the legislation Milk had fought for over and over again until it was signed into law. In 1976, his anti-discrimination employment law was passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. Continue Reading ›

A Closer Look at the LA Minimum Wage Debate

May 31, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news article from the LA Times, eight months following Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposal to raise the minimum wage in the City of Los Angeles, most major stakeholders have expressed their support in raising the minimum wage, or have at least chosen not to fight the inevitable. Now, the debate has shifted to the amount of a minimum wage increase that would be appropriate.

In addition to the amount of the worker base pay hike, city officials are looking at the duration of time over which an increase should be phased and whether some employers should be exempt from having to pay workers whatever new higher minimum wage is eventually passed into city law. Continue Reading ›

New Food Processing Jobs in California

May 30, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

California has a wide of industries that make the state a great place to live and work. There are farms and other agricultural jobs, technology centers, the television and movie industry in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, large law firms and international corporations, and a variety of other opportunities.

What many people may not realize that far more of the employment opportunities in California are directly or indirectly related to the state’s agricultural sector. According to a recent report from Record Net, food and beverage processing industry account not only tens of thousands of jobs, but for billions of dollars of value-added activity throughout the state.

For example, grape vineyard in the Napa Valley employs workers to grow and harvest the grape. During the growing process, supplies are shipped from other areas in the state. The grapes are then harvested and driven by truck drivers to an estate winery that will make and bottle wine. The wine is then sent to stores and restaurants in Southern California, which creates more jobs and raises the overall revenue for the state. Workers will then be able to purchase or rent a place to live, which in turn will create more jobs and revenue for the state. Continue Reading ›

Major California Employer Lays Off 2,000 and Offers Contract Positions

May 28, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news article in the Los Angeles Business Journal, Health Net, Inc. has announced it will by laying off more than 2000 of its employees and offering them jobs as contractors to the company.

In total, around 1200 employees in Woodland Hills and approximately 900 employees in Rancho Cordova will be without permanent positions, according to the major insurance company. The contract positions will be offered through a third-party consulting firm. Continue Reading ›

Term “Alien” to be removed from California Labor Code

May 26, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news article from the USC Guardian, State Senator Tony Mendoza introduced Senate Bill SB 432 earlier this year and the senate has just approved his bill. SB 432 was drafted to the remove the term “alien” from the California Labor Code.

In the existing form of the state labor code, the term alien is used to denote any person who is not a citizen of the United States or a United States national. The term alien to mean a person who is not a US citizen has long history of use in the legal documents of the United States and in common usage. With respect to the legal documents, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 can be used as an example. This act was used to grant authority to the federal government to deport any non-citizens it determined were dangerous to the nation. Other statutes use the terms illegal and unauthorized alien.

In speaking about why he felt the need to create this piece of legislation, Mendoza stated he feels the term alien holds a negative connotation, and there is no appropriate place for it in modern laws and statutes. Mendoza further argues the term alien has been a derogatory term in common usage, especially in the context of speaking about illegal aliens. Continue Reading ›

California Unemployment Rate Down

May 26, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Despite the growing problems in low wage jobs across the state of California including wage theft, and employee misclassification, there has been an overall decrease in the unemployment rate throughout the state.

According to a recent article from the Modesto Bee, the current unemployment rate in California has fallen slightly to 6.3 percent. The recent economic upswing has created approximately 30,000 new jobs across the state. Continue Reading ›