More Employment Lawsuits in 2013?

According to international legal services firm Fulbright & Jaworski’s newest Litigation Trends Survey, employers faced more lawsuits in 2012 than 2011, with labor and employment disputes and contract litigation at the forefront.

California employers: Don’t expect increased employment claims or regulatory changes to slow in 2013.

Both employers and HR professionals are wise to keep a proactive watch on key trends in California employment laws. Know your potential risk areas by downloading CalChamber’s free “Employment Law Trends” white paper.

CalChamber members can download their copy from the White Papers section under the Cases & News tab on HRCalifornia.

“Job Killer” Bills to be Considered by Policy Committees

​Two California Chamber of Commerce-opposed “job killer” bills will be considered by legislative policy committees today.

• AB 10 (Alejo; D-Salinas) Automatic Minimum Wage Increase — Unfairly increases California employers’ cost of doing business by raising the minimum wage $1.25 over the next three years and thereafter indexing the minimum wage based on inflation, which fails to take into account the current economic status of the state or other fees and costs employers are required to pay. Assembly Labor and Employment Committee hearing April 24.
• SB 626 (Beall; D–San Jose) Massive Workers’ Compensation Cost Increase — Unravels many of the employer cost-saving provisions in last year’s workers’ compensation reform package and results in employers paying nearly $1 billion in benefit increases to injured workers without an expectation that the increases will be fully offset by system savings. Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee hearing April 24.

AB 10

Under AB 10, the minimum wage would incrementally increase over three years by a total of $1.25 and then, starting in 2017, would adjust according to the annual percentage of inflation as determined by the California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

An automatic annual rise in the minimum wage according to the percentage of inflation does not take into account competing economic factors or conditions. Businesses could be suffering financially as a result of a recovering economy, such as now, or could be facing a host of increased costs, such as in 2014, and yet the minimum wage would continue to rise regardless.

Notably, the proposed annual indexing under AB 10 does not allow a reduction in the minimum wage in any year during which there is deflation.

SB 626

Last year, labor unions and employers came together to reform the California workers’ compensation system. SB 626 eliminates the entire balance of the deal and would erase hundreds of millions of dollars in projected savings.

Specifically, SB 626 would roll back reforms dealing with timely, high-quality medical treatment and a more predictable – and less litigious – permanent disability system.SB 626 leaves California employers worse off than they were before the reforms. Not only will they face pre-reform escalating costs; they will be burdened by an additional $1 billion in benefit increases with no expectation that this cost will be offset by system savings.

SB 626 is a giant step backwards for California employers during the current fragile economic recovery. Additionally, SB 626 reverses a bipartisan labor-employer compromise. These types of agreements between key stakeholders that enjoy overwhelmingly bipartisan approval should be encouraged and protected, not attacked and diluted.

 

Visit CalChamber.com for complete details on these two “Job Killer” bills.

Crazy Requests From the Boss

Talk about “other duties as assigned.”

Almost one in four workers (23 percent) who took part in a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com reported being asked to perform tasks that fell well outside the “job related” category.

The survey turned up many interesting and unusual requests made by bosses, including:

1. Boss asked employee to be prepared to delete all emails and computer files at a moment’s notice
2. Boss asked employee to be a surrogate mother for her — more than once
3. Boss asked employee to spy on senior management
4. Boss asked employee to buy a rifle for him, and he would reimburse the employee
5. Boss asked employee if she knew of anyone who could “hook him up” with illegal substances
6. Boss asked employee to go online and post false good comments about him
7. Boss asked employee to come up with a science fair project for her daughter
8. Boss asked employee to fire his (the boss’s) brother
9. Boss asked employee to lend him $400 for a down payment on a car
10. Boss asked employee to remove her stitches
11. Boss asked employee to be better friends with him
12. Boss asked employee to scour an abandoned office building for furniture and supplies they could use
13. Boss asked employee to bail another co-worker out of jail
14. Boss asked employee to clip her dog’s nails
15. Boss asked employee to help plan her wedding

Although some bosses do become friends with their employees, many of these unusual requests cross the line — even for a friendship.

Gail Cecchettini Whaley, CalChamber Employment Law Counsel/Content 

CalChamber Releases 2013 Job Killer List

The CalChamber announced the release of its annual list of “job killer” bills on April 8, 2013, calling attention to the negative impact that 32 proposed measures would have on California’s job climate and economic recovery if they were to become law.

“California policy makers should keep their focus on the number one issues affecting their constituents – economic recovery and job creation,” said CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg. “Each of these proposed Job Killer bills would increase uncertainty for employers and investors and lead to higher costs of doing business, which will undermine the economic health of the state.”

“Employers are already feeling the pinch of higher health care premiums, higher workers’ compensation premiums, increased unemployment insurances taxes, and general tax increases,” Zaremberg said. “In this environment, it is critical that we keep all other costs of doing business in check. Individually these bills are bad but cumulatively they are worse.”

Legislation included on the “job killer” list released today will change throughout the year as bills are amended or new language is introduced.

The full 2013 “job killer” list is available on CalChamber.com and includes these employment related bills:

Costly Workplace Mandates
AB 5 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco) Increased Exposure to Frivolous Litigation — Imposes costly and unreasonable mandates on employers that could jeopardize the health and safety of others by creating a new protected classification of employees and customers who are or are perceived to be homeless, low income, suffering from a mental disability, or physical disability, and establishing a private right of action for such individuals that includes statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.

AB 10 (Alejo; D-Salinas) Automatic Minimum Wage Increase — Unfairly increases California employers’ cost of doing business by raising the minimum wage $1.25 over the next three years and thereafter indexing the minimum wage based on inflation, which fails to take into account the current economic status of the state or other fees and costs employers are required to pay.

AB 1138 (Chau; D-Alhambra) Massive Exposure to Civil Penalties and Liability — Inappropriately increases civil cases and civil penalties on employers by permitting civil action against those employers who fail to conspicuously post a list of every employee covered under an employer’s workers’ compensation insurance policy and to retain this list for five years. 

SB 404 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) Expansion of Discrimination Litigation — Makes it virtually impossible for employers to manage their employees and exposes them to a higher risk of litigation by expanding the Fair Employment and Housing Act to include a protected classification for any person who is, perceived, or associated with a family caregiver.

SB 626 (Beall; D–San Jose) Massive Workers’ Compensation Cost Increase — Unravels many of the employer cost-saving provisions in last year’s workers’ compensation reform package and results in employers paying nearly $1 billion in benefit increases to injured workers without an expectation that the increases will be fully offset by system savings.

SB 761 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord) Paid Family Leave Protection — Creates a new burden on small businesses and additional opportunities for frivolous litigation by transforming the paid family leave program, which is used as a wage replacement for an employee who is taking a separate leave of absence, into an additional paid protected leave.

USCIS Reaches FY 2014 H-1B Cap

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Friday, April 5, that it received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014.

USCIS said it also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS announced that it will no longer accept H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption, and that more detailed information about the H-1B cap will be provided this week.

Shane Peterson, CalChamber Development Editor