Posts By: Jason Resnick
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H-2A Roundtable Sessions to be Held in May & June
It’s time to sign up for the 2019 H-2A Roundtable Sessions! This year’s Roundtable sessions will be held in multiple locations and the Santa Maria session will be presented in both English and Spanish. These sessions are offered at no cost to members of participating organizations including Western Growers but RSVP is required. Wage and ...
U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Employers in Class Arbitration Case
In a victory for employers, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela that courts cannot order an arbitration to be conducted on a class-wide basis unless there is an arbitration agreement that expressly authorizes class arbitration. In 2016, a hacker tricked an employee of Lamps Plus, Inc., into disclosing tax ...
Employers Must Provide Pay Data to EEOC by September 30
As discussed here and here, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has confirmed that EEO-1 filers should begin preparing to submit employee pay data (Component 1) for calendar year 2018 by September 30, 2019, in light of the court’s recent decision in National Women’s Law Center, et al., v. Office of Management and Budget, et ...
Protect Outdoor Workers from Heat Illnesses
As temperatures continue to rise throughout California, Cal/OSHA is reminding all employers to protect their outdoor workers from heat related illnesses. Heat advisories have been issued for Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties with weather forecasts of high heat over the next week. Additionally, Cal/OSHA investigators will conduct high heat inspections at outdoor work facilities ...
CalSavers Opens for Enrollment beginning July 1, 2019
CalSavers is a new California law designed to encourage employees to save for retirement. CalSavers was originally called California Secure Choice and was approved by the State Legislature in 2016. In California, beginning July 1, 2019, the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program will open to all eligible employers. CalSavers provides employees with a retirement savings program ...
Trump Administration Proposes New Rules to Streamline H-2A
On July 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration and Wage and Hour Division posted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to solicit public comment on proposed changes to improve the H-2A temporary agricultural labor certification program. The NPRM includes several major proposals that would streamline and simplify the H-2A application process, ...
Controversial Independent Contractor Bill AB 5, Passes State Senate
The California Senate has passed AB 5, which codifies and expands on the “ABC” test for determining whether a worker should be classified as an employee or an independent contractor. The new test was adopted by the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision in 2018. In Dynamex, the California Supreme Court held that under this ABC test, workers ...
CA Gov. Newsom Signs Assembly Bill 5
As previously stated in Spotlight, the California legislature has passed Assembly Bill (AB) 5, which codifies and expands on the “ABC” test for determining whether a worker should be classified as an employee or an independent contractor. Yesterday, September 18th, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 5, requiring employers to reclassify certain workers who are ...
U.S. DOL Updates Salary Levels for Overtime Exempt Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-awaited final rule updating and revising the regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regarding the salary levels necessary to deem executive, administrative or professional employees exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime pay requirements (the so-called “white collar exemptions”). The DOL changes do…
DOL Rescinds H-2A Advertising Rule
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the repeal of a rule requiring employers to advertise H-2A jobs in print newspapers. The beneficial new rule becomes effective October 21, 2019. Under current regulations, after an employer submits an acceptable H-2A application and job order, the DOL will issue a Notice of Acceptance specifying the “positive ...
No Reporting Time Pay Required When Power is Disrupted by Public Utilities
As has been reported, PG&E and other California utilities have implemented power outages intended to mitigate wildfire risk caused by downed power lines due to excessive wind conditions. The IWC Wage Orders for packing/processing (Wage Orders 8 and 13) and agricultural employees (Wage Order 14) state that if an employee is required to report for ...
Cal/OSHA Encourages Employers to Protect Workers from Unhealthy Air Quality due to Wildfire Smoke
Cal/OSHA prompts all employers to take the necessary steps to protect workers from harmful exposure to unhealthy air quality due to wildfire smoke. As previously reported in Spotlight, the Office of Administrative Law approved the Protection from Wildfire Smoke regulation, which requires California employers to protect their employees from possible harm created by wildfire smoke. ...
CDFA Hosts Informational Webpage on Wildfire Recovery Resources for Farmers and Ranchers
California is only halfway through its fire season, yet the fires the state has been plagued with over the past month have ruined thousands of acres of land and caused many evacuations. Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of RESPONSE.CA.GOV, a state website supplying Californians, who have been impacted by wildfires and utility-directed power ...
Employers Should Prepare Now for Higher Minimum Wage and H-2A Rates in 2020
Employers in every Western Growers-represented state should begin preparing now to pay higher minimum wage and H-2A wage rates beginning next year. California On January 1, 2020, the California minimum wage is set to increase to $13.00 per hour, up from $12 per hour, for employers with 26 or more employees. The rate will rise ...
DOL Publishes H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rates for 2020
Today the U.S. Department of Labor published in the Federal Register the 2020 Adverse Effect Wage Rates. These rates will go into effect on January 2nd, 2020. As anticipated, there are Steep increases in many states and regions for 2020, including the Western Growers states, as follows: State 2020 AEWR 2019 AEWR Increase Arizona $12.91 ...
Court Blocks California Arbitration Ban
AB 51, barring mandatory arbitration agreements in employment, won’t go into effect in January after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a lawsuit alleging the law is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller wrote in her order that the lawsuit filed against the State of California by ...
Court Exempts Independent Truck Drivers from AB 5
A U.S. District Court has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the state from applying AB 5, California’s new independent contractor law, to independent truck drivers. The case filed by the California Trucking Association (CTA) contends that AB 5, the bill that codified and expanded the “ABC test” adopted by the California Supreme Court ...
DOL Rolls Back Obama Joint Employer Rule
On January 12, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor published its Final Rule that would roll back the expansive interpretation of the joint employer test under the Fair Labor Standards Act promulgated four years ago by then-Wage and Hour Division Administrator David Weil. Under the Obama Administration’s interpretation, the “economic realities” of a business’s relationship ...
Post Your OSHA Form 300A Summary
Employers with 11 or more employees are required to post their 2019 OSHA Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses from February 1 to April 30 of the year following the year covered by the summary. The 300A Summary or an equivalent must be completed even if there were no work-related injuries or illnesses ...
COVID-19: Employer Guidance and Resources
Employers are responding to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak in a variety of ways. There is no one correct way to respond, and there is no one-size-fits-all policy that must be implemented. However, there is no doubt that given the rapid spread of the outbreak in the United States and globally, employers must now take steps ...