California’s legislature hopes to expand unemployment benefits to illegal immigrants who are unemployed. If Senate Bill 227 passes, employers may be forced to pay higher taxes to cover the increase in unemployment benefits being paid out. The new bill increases the pool of “unemployment benefits” applicants, allows undocumented employees meet a lower threshold for obtaining “unemployment benefits, and actively ignores the propensity for fraud in these instances.
Read MoreWith the rise of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, COVID-19 has entered the discussion nationally and locally. Many schools, businesses, and sports establishments are again mandating that students, employees, and customers wear masks. Employers can breathe a sigh of relief because California’s highest court has recently held that employers cannot be held liable for “take home COVID” where an employee contracts COVID at work and passes it on to a household member.
Read MoreEmployers can be held liable for sexual harassment based on the type of music that is played in the workplace for all to hear. Sexual harassment is now so broadly defined that the music does not need to target any one person and can be simultaneously offensive to both men and women. Employers should regulate the type of music employees may be allowed to play in the workplace – or limit the type of music to a predetermined list of songs or music channel.
Read MoreThe FAST Recovery Act negatively affects fast food employees, their families, and all consumers as a whole. In fact, the new law will likely hasten the replacement of the very employees it purports to protect as employers implement more automated procedures to cut costs. In addition, the new law will likely result in the rise of fast food prices, negatively affecting all consumers- especially those consumers who rely on the low fast food prices.
Read MoreIf you are a California employer, you need to know that Courts are handing out larger and larger awards to fewer and fewer employees. Doing business in California just got more expensive!
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