Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
David C. SingerBLOG CONTACT INFO
E: Wirth.Gabrielle@dorsey.com
P: 714.800.1455
Quirky Question #150 An employee has asked if they can take a leave of absence to care for a sick child who is not their own. Do I have to provide leave to an employee for the care of a sick child, even if they are not the legal parent? What if the child has two parents already?
Question: I work as an HR representative in a medium-sized California business – we employ about 50 people. Recently, a situation with one of our employees was brought to my attention, and I’ve been asked how to handle it. We have an administrative assistant with an alcohol problem. We have reason to believe that her alcoholism was the true reason...
Quirky Question # 137: Our company recently hired a woman to manage our clean room. This job is critical to our business and we spent a great deal of time finding someone who we thought would be the right person for bringing a new product to market on a critical time path. In addition to supervising the employees in the...
Top 5 Decisions by the California Supreme Court in 2009 Originally published in the Daily Journal, February 5, 2010. The California Supreme Court decided a number of key cases in 2009 that offer a mixed bag for employers attempting to manage and prevent employment litigation. A review of these decisions is instrumental as they can significantly impact employment policies and...
Quirky Question # 128: I work for a California employer with nonexempt retail employees who earn commissions on their sales. We have been sued for failing to provide our employees with meal and rest breaks. I understand the company may be liable to each employee for one hour of pay when a break was not provided. The class action complaint...
Wage and hour class actions comprise approximately one third of all class action litigation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has taken note as during the past six months, a number of significant wage and hour cases were decided by the court. Most of these cases involved class allegations where the court considered issues related to employee classification, off-the-clock work...
Quirky Question # 116: I am the owner of a small private company. I was recently alerted by my secretary that various computers around the office, including some in private offices, have been used late at night to access the internet. The late-night use has included accessing pornographic websites from a couple of the offices. I need to discovery who...
Quirky Question # 107: I keep hearing about companies getting hit with class action lawsuits under California’s tough wage and hour laws. As I understand it, when a company treats its employees the same under a single policy, it is much more likely to have a class action certified against it. Our company’s policy is to treat as exempt from...
Quirky Question # 103: We recently opened operations in California and are concerned that our current PTO policy does not meet California state standards. We were caught unawares by the new Massachusetts Supreme Court case on vacation pay and know that the law on vacation policies differs from state to state. What should we be doing to protect ourselves from...
Quirky Question # 89: Our company develops software and is based in California with another location in Arizona. On occasion, our software developers in Arizona come to our California facility to perform some work. Two of our Arizona based developers have recently complained that while they are in California they should be paid overtime for the work done at our...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
