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Cook Brown, LLP, is proud to announce that Barbara A. Cotter has been made a partner in the firm. Ms. Cotter joined the firm as Of Counsel in 2007; prior to that, she chaired the Employment Practices Group at Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney. Her practice includes providing advice and guidance on the critical issues facing California's employers: hiring and firing, harassment investigations, leased employees, wage and hour compliance, disability accommodation, personal and family leave rights, mass layoffs and plant closures, contract disputes and protection of trade secrets. Ms. Cotter is a graduate of San Francisco State University and Hastings College of the Law. She served as law clerk to the Honorable Milton L. Schwartz, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of California, from 1989 to 1991. She is a member of the California and Sacramento County Bar Associations.
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NEW LAWS IMPACTING CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS IN 2008
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| AB 392 |
Military Spouses. Requires employers of 25 or more employees to grant up to 10 days of unpaid leave to a soldier-spouse. To qualify: |
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- Spouse must be actively deployed
- Time off must be during “qualified leave periods”
- Employee must work on average of 20 hours per week for employer
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| AB 14 |
Civil Rights Act of 2007. Prohibits discrimination either in the provision of business services or in the operation of programs conducted or funded by the government
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| AB 102 |
Name Equality Act of 2007. Requires domestic partnership registration to permit both parties to change their (middle & last) name. Employers are prohibited from using such information to refuse to do business with or provide service to an individual.
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| AB 338 |
Disability Benefits. Removes the requirement that the Temporary Disability (TD) benefits be collected within two years of the first date that TD is paid. Instead injured workers can receive 104 weeks of temporary disability as long as those benefits are paid within five years of the date of injury. Benefits are still capped at 104 weeks, but the injured worker has a longer period of time in which to collect those benefits.
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| AB 650 |
Earned Income Tax Notice. Requires employers to notify all employees that they may be eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Notice must be: |
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- given within one week of providing annual wage summary;
- handed directly to the employee or mailed to the employee's last known address;
- either IRS Notice 797 and Form W-5, or any notice created by the employer, as long as it contains substantially the same language.
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| SB 929 |
Hourly Rate Computer Professional. Lowers the hourly minimum compensation from $41 to $36 for the computer professional exemption. The employee must still be primarily engaged in work that is intellectual or creative to be entitled to the exemption. |
| SB 929 (cont.) |
Prevailing Wage Determinations. Authorizes contractors to allocate payments equal to the predetermined rate change to either hourly wages or benefits when there is no specific allocation for the change. If the predetermined change is subsequently altered per a collective bargaining agreement, a contractor may allocate payments in accordance with either the originally published allocation or the allocation as altered in the CBA.
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| LOCAL ORDINANCES |
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SF Health Care. Requires employers, with at least 20 workers, to help pay for health care for uninsured workers by paying into a city health insurance program on hours of part-time and full-time employees. Employers are required to include all employees for qualifications but need only pay on employees who work in San Francisco. The ordinance excludes managers and confidential employees who earn over $76,851
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| PREVIOUSLY PASSED LEGISLATION IN EFFECT IN ‘08 |
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New I-9 Requirements. Effective November 7, 2007, five documents were removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents: |
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- Certificate of U.S. Citizenship
- Certificate of Naturalization
- Alien Registration Receipt Card
- Unexpired Refugee Travel Document
- Unexpired Reentry Permit
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One document was added to List A: |
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- Unexpired Employment Authorization Document
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Minimum Wages. Increases California’s minimum hourly wage and exempt salary standards for all California employers. This law increases the minimum wage to $8.00 per hour, effective on and after January 1, 2008.
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Employees’ Social Security Numbers. As of January 1, 2008 employee can only be identified by the last four digits of the employee’s social security number or a separate identification number. Social security numbers can no longer be listed on the employee’s itemized pay stubs.
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Cell Phones while Driving. Prohibits the use of cell phones while driving unless using a hands-free operation as of July 1, 2008. |
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