Attention California Employers! Soon, You Will Need to Provide Employees Five Days (or 40 Hours) of Paid Sick Leave (US)

On October 4, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) No. 616 into law, which expands California’s mandatory paid sick leave from three days (or twenty-four hours) to five days (or forty hours). The increased paid sick leave requirements take effect on January 1, 2024.

Background

In 2014, California enacted the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (“HWHFA”), providing California employees with paid sick leave. The HWHFA became effective on July 1, 2015, and has been amended … Read the rest

The in duplum rule does not apply to late payment interest on arrear pension fund contributions owed by participating employers

Since 2020, most retirement funds have been faced with a situation where participating employers have failed to comply with section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA), by either underpaying employer or member contributions or not paying at all. The non-payment of contributions attracts late payment interest in terms of section 13(7) of the PFA.

It is against this background that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) repealed Regulation 33, which governed payment of pension fund contributions and … Read the rest

BREAKING: California Employers to Disclose Pay Ranges (US)

As a result of Governor Newsom’s signature on SB 1162, California will soon become the largest state requiring affirmative disclosure of pay scale information, thus contributing to the state’s ongoing effort to increase pay transparency. Effective January 1, 2023, many California employers will be required to include pay scale information in job postings and disclose pay scale information to current employees. The bill also makes significant changes to California’s existing pay data reporting requirements for private employers with 100 or … Read the rest

Remember the Pandemic? Latest Wave Causes New Issues for Employers

It’s not over.

We all knew that, though some of us — including me — were hoping for a least a bit of a respite during the spring and summer months.

No such luck.  Indeed, after two years of avoiding the illness, we recently had a “visit” of COVID to our house; thankfully, the one family member who got it had fairly mild symptoms.

This latest wave is a bit stealthier because of the widespread use of at-home tests and … Read the rest

NLRB GC Seeks to Curtail Employers’ Defenses to Union Organizing Amidst Huge Increase in Union Election Petitions

On April 6, the National Labor Relations Board announced that union representation petitions filed with the agency during the first six (6) months of the fiscal year had increased 57% from the previous year.[1]  The very next day, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced yet another policy initiative to hamper employer efforts to resist union organizing.  See GC 22-04, “The Right to Refrain from Captive Audience and other Mandatory Meetings.”

Specifically, the GC announced that she would seek to overturn … Read the rest

Washington State to Require Employers to Provide Salary Ranges and Other Compensation Information in Job Postings

On March 30, 2022, Washington Governor Inslee signed into law a bill that will require employers to include a salary or pay range, as well as information about other compensation and benefits, in each job posting. The bill revises the existing state law that requires only that employers provide the minimum wage or salary for a position to an applicant after an offer of employment has been made.  The new law takes effect on January 1, 2023.

Specifically, the new … Read the rest