The minimum wage in San Francisco will increase to $10.55 per hour, effective January 1, 2013:
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Tags: HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant, Minimum Wage
Employers will need to change notices, postings and employee handbook policies related to discrimination and harassment prevention to reflect two recently signed bills, AB 1964 and AB 2386.
Religious Dress/Grooming
AB 1964 amends Government Code sections 12926 and 12940 and clarifies that the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (FEHA) discrimination protections and reasonable accommodation requirements cover religious dress practices and religious grooming practices.
As stated in the analysis of the bill, the intent is to “provide clarity and ensure that all religions receive equal protection under the law.”
Importantly, the law specifies that an accommodation is “not reasonable” if the accommodation requires segregation of the individual from other employees or the public.
Breastfeeding
AB 2386 amends California Government Code Section 12926 and makes it clear that breastfeeding is protected by law and discrimination on that basis is illegal.
The new legislation was enacted, in part, to reflect a decision by the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) in 2009 in which an employee was terminated because she was nursing her baby during her lunchtime break.
Because the FEHC’s decision was designated as having precedential authority, such discrimination is a violation of FEHA.
Updated Poster/Employee Handbook
HR Allen's 2013 California and Federal Employment Notices Poster and Employee Handbook will include changes to policies and posters as a result of AB 1964 and AB 2386.
Author: HR Watchdog, HRCalifornia’s Employment Law Blog, © California Chamber of Commerce
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Tags: Posters and Notices, HR Allen Consulting Services, discrimination, HR Informant
In August, HRInformant blogged on the progress of proposed amendments to California’s pregnancy regulations and disability discrimination regulations. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) completed its changes to the regulations.
The FEHC filed the changes with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), which can take up to 30 working days to accept or reject the proposed changes to the regulations. The deadline for the OAL to respond to the disability discrimination regulations is November 27, 2012, and the deadline to decide on the pregnancy disability regulations is November 30, 2012.
If the OAL does approve the proposed regulations, the new regulations will be filed with the Secretary of State and become effective in 30 days. If the OAL does not approve the proposed changes, the changes would be sent back to the FEHC for revision and a new notice to the public.
The proposed changes to pregnancy disability leave (PDL) regulations include:
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Tags: PDL regulations, amendments, disability regulations, FEHC changes to regulations, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant
California's Employment Development Department administers the State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, which is a partial wage-replacement insurance plan for California workers.
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Tags: EDD, Employment Development Department, SDI, State Disability Insurance, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant, California employers
The General Election is on November 6, 2012. Employees have certain rights to take time off to vote, and employers have posting obligations.
Time Off To Vote
If an employee does not have sufficient time outside of working hours to vote in a statewide election, the employee may, without loss of pay, take up to two (2) hours of working time to vote. The time off must be taken at the beginning or end of the regular working shift, whichever gives the employee the most free time for voting and the least time off from working.
You and the employee may mutually agree to a different part of the working shift when the time off can be taken. The employee must notify you at least two (2) working days in advance to arrange a voting time.
Posting Obligations
Employers must display a poster describing voting leave requirements at least 10 days before every statewide election. For a copy of the voting leave poster, and all required posters and notices, see the Required Posters for the Workplace page on HRCalifornia and visit the CalChamber store to purchase.
Sharing Information With Employees
Employers are within their rights to communicate with employees about issues, regulations, legislation or ballot measures that will have an impact on the workplace, jobs, the economy and the employees themselves.
But employers may not take certain actions: no paycheck stuffers; no coercion; no rewarding or punishing employees (or threatening to do so) for their political activities or beliefs.
For more guidelines on political communications to employees, see this brochureprepared by the CalChamber. Note the distinction between internal communications (to employees, stockholders and their families) and communications to external audiences (such as non-stockholder retirees, outside vendors, customers or passersby).
CalChamber Urges Members to Register to Vote for November Elections
The California Chamber of Commerce is urging its members to register to vote for the November 6 General Election before the October 22 deadline.
An online link to register is available this CalChamber site. Voter registration information is available at the Secretary of State website.
The last day to register to vote for the November 6 election is October 22, 2012. To register to vote, you must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years of age, a resident of California, not in prison or on parole for the conviction of a felony and have not been judged by a court to be mentally incompetent to register and vote.
See the CalChamber’s positions on November ballot measures.
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Tags: time off to vote, Election Day, political communications, employees, California, HR Allen Consulting Services, Employers, HR Informant
California State Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su announced last week that a settlement of nearly $5 million has been reached in a statewide lawsuit filed to recover unpaid minimum wages for real estate agents working for a California company.
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Tags: Department of Industrial Relations, overtime wages, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Minimum Wage
Governor Edmund G. Brown vetoed a California Chamber of Commerce-opposed bill, AB 889 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco), which would have provided the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) with authority to develop regulations placing wage-and-hour mandates on working families.
AB 889 would have required the DIR to adopt regulations no later than January 2014 for “domestic work employees,” which the bill generally defined as any individual who performs “domestic work” such as housekeeping, child care and other “household occupations.”
The bill would have required the regulations to include provisions addressing overtime compensation, meal and rest periods and sleep periods, or to simply adopt the regulations set forth in Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 15.
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Tags: Department of Industrial Relations, AB 889, domestic work, household occupations, nanny bill, nanny break bill, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant, wage and hour
Gov. Edmund G. Brown has now signed or vetoed employment-related legislation passed by the California Legislature this year. The governor did not act on many of the bills until this past weekend, even waiting until hours before the deadline of midnight on September 30.
A few of the new laws that employers need to be aware of this year include:
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Tags: workers' compensation reform, SB 863, AB 1844, AB 2386, AB 2674, anti-discrimination, new employment laws for 2013, personnel records, social media passwords, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant
Don’t have enough time to take care of necessary yet mundane tasks? You could hire an intern, but that seems like such a hassle — because you’ll have to train him. A better option may be to enlist one of several new services that offer temporary help with everything from distributing promotional flyers to assembling office furniture.
In the past, you may have hired a bookkeeper to handle your ledgers, a web guru to manage your website and social media outreach, or a virtual assistant to take care of your correspondence. These days, services like TaskRabbit, Zaarly, and Postmates offer additional types of assistance as needed, such as helping out when you get a sudden influx of business.
TaskRabbit, for example, offers a network of “rabbits” who can help you with virtually anything. You post the job, the deadline, and the price you’d like to pay. Available rabbits nearby respond with bids; you review their profiles and expertise and then hire one.
Of course, outsourcing comes with caveats: You may not be able to find someone in your price range or with the right skills for a particular task. And many services are available only in major metropolitan areas.
Ready to hand off your grunt work? Here are three tips for getting started:
- Calculate how much your time is worth. Could that hour it takes you to make a delivery across town be better used trying to attract new customers or finishing up a project? Figure out whether it makes financial sense to outsource a particular job.
- Set clear expectations. Describe your task as specifically as possible, setting goals and a deadline. Before you pick someone, ask questions and gauge his or her ability to complete your job. Has he done this before? Does she have the necessary tools and equipment?
- Get creative.
Outsourcing could be a low-cost way for you to test the waters on a new service, pamper your best clients with a surprise gift, or even meet new partners.
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Tags: intern, virtual assistant, outsourcing, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant
This past week, one of our concierges, Brad, decided to leave us for a new full-time job. That hadn’t happened in awhile, but it was a surprisingly easy transition (technically). However, I still had to dust off a few cobwebs to remember exactly what to do when an employee resigns.
My initial thought was to make sure that there were no outstanding client issues. No matter what, we have to take care of our clients first. But Brad is a conscientious guy, and he made sure that all of his clients had finished traveling before he left. So there wasn’t anything difficult to handle in that respect.
Next, I thought about all of the places where Brad had a presence in company materials. I needed to adjust those. To this end:
- I changed his email password and set his account to forward any messages to our general inbox, in case a client used it;
- I deleted his phone extension and re-recorded our company greeting, because it lists every person’s extension by name; and
- I removed his bio from the website and his extension from the contact page.
Once I’d handled the basic customer-facing tasks, it was time to turn inward. I had already paid his last check, so that wasn’t a concern. We had done this via email, which counted as a written notice, so we were set legally. I also made sure that our office chief knew not to send future clients to him.
Of course, I also emailed everyone else in the company to let them know that Brad was gone. I wanted to make sure they knew not only that he’d left, but also that he had done so to take another job (and not because of any internal issues with the company). I think people are always interested in knowing the real story behind someone’s departure. In this case, there was no juicy gossip to be had.
In the end, we will miss having Brad on our team, but the transition was about as painless as could be.
by
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Tags: transition, leaving, resignation, employees, HR Allen Consulting Services, HR Informant