The Employer’s Advocate

On September 15, 2009, Senator Arlen Specter reportedly announced to a group of union leaders at an AFL-CIO convention that the Senate now has an employee free choice bill that will meet labor’s objectives, which presumably means a bill that will curtail the rights of an employer to manage the operation of its enterprise.  The [...]

I am pleased to announce that CE Smith Law Firm has opened another office  in Carlsbad, CA.  The office is in a scenic location, adjacent to La Costa, at the intersection of El Camino Real and Aviara Parkway, in North San Diego County.  The office address is 6994 El Camino Real, Suite 204, Carlsbad, CA [...]

On June 16, 2009, the California Fair Employment & Housing Commission issued its decision in the case of DFEH vs. ACOSTA TACOS, Case No. E200708 T-0097-00se.  
A Los Angeles employer who owned a chain of taquerias selling tacos and other Mexican food, hired a hispanic female, and employed her as a cashier.  She worked there [...]

Announced July 1, 2009, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency sent Notices of Inspection to 652 businessess nationwide, to review their I-9 and related employment records to determine compliance with Immigration laws.  By comparison, ICE sent only 503 of these notices to employers for the entire year of 2008.  As always, the stated [...]

In a decision published July 2, 2009, the California Supreme Court has stated that the same legal standards currently used to determine sexual harassment in the workplace, under both Title VII and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, also apply to liability determinations for alleged sexual harassment in business, service and professional relationships, which is [...]

A reader recently asked me for an update on this issue and, I am always willing to accommodate a reader’s request.  First, for further information on the Employee Free Choice Act, I suggest that you go “Employer Links” on my website, and then click “Employee Free Choice Act” on the dropdown menu.
As for new developments [...]

In 2006, Lisa Owen, a former sales associate sued Macy’s, alleging that the store did not pay her all of the accrued, vested vacation pay to which she claimed that she was entitled.  (Ms. Owen had previously worked for Robinson’s-May, which was acquired by Macy’s.)  The Robinson’s employee handbook stated that “all eligible sales associates earn [...]

On June 2, 2009, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District, Division One, dramatically reversed an $86 million dollar judgment previously entered against Starbucks in a class action lawsuit by a San Diego trial court.   The Appellate Court determined that Starbucks did not violate California Labor Code § 351 by requiring an equitable [...]

In its May/June, 2009 editions, California Bar Journal is reporting the following million dollar plus verdicts against California employers:

$2,812,000.00 verdict against Toyota Motor Corporation, resulting from the unlawful termination of a Chinese woman due to pregnancy, maternity leave and ethnicity (Sun v. Toyota Motor Corp., Los Angeles County Superior Court);
$1,200,000.00 verdict against the City of [...]

By affirming the Trial Court’s decision to sustain a Water District’s Demurrer to a class-action complaint, the Appellate Court for the Fifth Appellate District has clearly stated that unless Labor Code provisions are specifically made applicable to public employers, they only apply to employers in the private sector.  Randell Johnson v. Arvin-Edison Water Storage District [...]