The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel, Richard Griffin, recently issued the “Report of the General Counsel Concerning Employer Rules,” a comprehensive report providing guidance to employers on what the NLRB deems to be lawful and unlawful company handbook provisions and policies. The rules in the Report apply to both unionized and non-unionized employers because the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) restricts all employers from issuing policies or rules that inhibit employees from engagingRead More…

The California Constitution expressly provides that all persons have a right to privacy. However, the right to privacy is not absolute and some intrusion into a person’s privacy will be permitted if there is a legitimate competing interest and the intrusion is reasonably calculated to further that legitimate interest. In the workplace, an employee may effectively waive the right to privacy under certain circumstances. This Newsletter shall discuss some of the situations in which theRead More…

There are several major issues facing all start-up companies relating to their workforce. This Newsletter shall provide a quick overview of three of these issues. Employee or Independent Contractor. Many new companies want to classify their workers as independent contractors because they believe that having independent contractors will simplify payroll administration by not having to withhold federal and state income taxes and social security and medicare taxes, save money on employment related taxes, and thatRead More…

Many employers desire to impose dress and grooming standards for their employees to ensure their employees present a clean and professional image to customers. Generally, an employer has the right to establish standards for the personal appearance of its employees, as long as the standards do not discriminate on the basis of sex, religion or race, and the standards are applied in a nondiscriminatory manner.

An employee handbook sets forth the policies of the business. Since it is given to all new employees upon starting employment, it is an important tool for establishing good communication between the company and the employee. There are many reasons for a company to have an employee handbook, including the following: Efficient Communication. An employee handbook will reduce the time that management spends answering questions from employees, since many of the answers relating to companyRead More…

Under both federal and state law, an employer is prohibited from discriminating against an employee based upon national origin or ancestry. However, a recent case shows that such discrimination does not have to be based upon the employee’s physical or genetically determined characteristics such as skin color or physical traits. In El-Hakem v. BJY, Inc., the claim of discrimination was based upon the chief executive officer’s repeated use of a non-Arabic name instead of theRead More…