The Labor Commissioner’s Office has cited three restaurants in Southern California $1,065,646 for wage theft violations owed to 22 workers. Most of the workers were paid less than $5 an hour and regularly worked more than 10 hours a day with no meal or rest breaks. Enforcement investigations typically include a payroll audit of the previous three years to determine minimum wage, overtime and other labor law violations, and calculate payments owed and penalties due. Civil pena

Employment and Labor Law: S.B. 1300 was signed into law September 30, 2018, by Governor Jerry Brown. S.B. 1300, which takes effect January 1, 2019, allows workers to sue for a single incident of harassment, which ends what has been deemed as the “one free grope” defense. Specifically, the new law changes/clarifies the legal standard by rejecting a 2000 federal appellate court ruling that said harassment must be “severe or pervasive” to violate state law. #SB1300 #WorkplaceH

Approximately 45,000 California state employees are expected to gain a new benefit next year that will let them take paid time off if they have a baby or must care for a family member experiencing a medical emergency. Governor Jerry Brown’s administration is expanding paid family leave to about 45,000 managers and supervisors who are not represented by unions. Those workers will be eligible for paid family leave as of July 1, 2019. #Medical Leave #Employee Leave #Public Empl