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Musick Peeler’s Business Litigation Group represents clients in a wide variety of business and corporate litigation matters.

Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti Issues Emergency COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave Order

On April 7, 2020, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an emergency public order requiring businesses with 500 or more employees who perform any work in the City of Los Angeles or 2,000 or more employees within the United States to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental paid sick leave due to COVID-19.  The order is effective immediately, and remains in effect until two calendar weeks after the expiration of the COVID-19 local emergency period. The emergency order ...

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The Families First Coronavirus Response Act – What We Know Now

On March 18, 2020, the President signed HR 6201, the Families First  Coronavirus Response Act (Act or FFCRA) into law. Since then, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued, and reissued, guidance on multiple occasions, sometimes even changing previous advice. The latest DOL advice includes: A Fact Sheet for Employers and A Question and Answers document Based on this guidance, the following is what we know now. This information supersedes any prior releases that we have distributed on this topic. ...

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LA City Council Passes COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

On March 27, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council passed Article 5-72HH requiring businesses with 500 or more employees nationally to provide up to 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave to employees who work within the geographic boundaries of the City of Los Angeles.  The ordinance supplements the paid sick leave provisions of the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201), which applies to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Full and Part-Time Employees Covered. ...

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Further Developments Regarding the Families First Response Coronavirus Act

On March 24, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its initial guidance explaining the provisions of the Families First Response Coronavirus Act, which provided the new paid sick leave and emergency FMLA leave benefits briefly outlined in a prior release. The DOL guidance included a Fact Sheet for Employers https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employer-paid-leave and a Question and Answers document https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-questions. The DOL guidance provided the following updated information, among other areas: The DOL guidance states that the Act will ...

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Employment Law Issues Arising from COVID19

Layoffs and furloughs: Many employers have been forced to lay off employees or implement temporary furloughs. Generally, layoffs confer no right of later reinstatement (absent commitments to the contrary), and furloughs are intended to be temporary, typically having defined start and end dates. Laid off employees must be paid their accrued vacation (or PTO) pay and given an EDD Notice to Employees form and COBRA notice. Furloughed employees may also be entitled to unemployment insurance benefits and also should be given ...

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California Supreme Court Decides Standard Applicable to Classification of Workers As Independent Contractors

On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued a decision that may make it more difficult for California employers to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Specifically, in Dynamex Operations W., Inc. v. Superior Court, 2018 WL 1999120 (Cal. Apr. 30, 2018), the Court held that the burden is on the hiring entity to establish that the worker is an independent contractor by establishing all three of the following factors:

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Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Diego and Santa Monica Pass New Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave Ordinances

The cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Diego, and Santa Monica have each recently passed ordinances increasing the minimum wage effective July 1, 2016.  With the exception of Pasadena, all have further passed ordinances providing for paid sick leave beyond that required by California state law.  This article highlights some key provisions of these ordinances.

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