Category Archives: Employment
Unclassy Action
By Andrew Jacobson The class action lawsuit that engineers brought against seven of the biggest Silicon Valley companies has been tentatively settled for about $324 million. Divided equally among the 64,000 class members after paying attorneys’ fees, each engineer would get about $3,500 – about one paycheck per engineer, hardly the mother lode some were […]
Shallow Pockets
By Andrew Jacobson The first question plaintiff lawyers ask when a new lawsuit comes their way is “where are the deep pockets?” Suing the villain is fine, but winning only gets a piece of paper called a judgment. You need to sue and beat someone with money to pay for a judgment – deep pockets. […]
Earned Income Tax Credit Notice
California employers, take note: you are required to give notice to all your employees about the earned income tax credit at about the time you give them their W-2 or 1099 forms. If you have individuals who are independent contractors, give them notice as well. Here is the recommended language, which you can print on […]
California Creates New Corporate Structures Enabling For-Profit Corporations To Consider the Public Benefit
Sharon Adams Introduction In January 2012, California created two new state corporate structures: (1) flexible purpose corporations, and (2) benefit corporations. Unlike traditional for-profit corporations, these new corporate structures are required to provide for benefit to the public. Unlike traditional non-profit corporations, these new corporate entities are not tax […]
What Could Go Wrong With a Wooden Horse?
One of the major justifications small business owners have for not protecting their information more carefully is “who would want our information? We’re just a small firm that doesn’t handle anything important for anybody.” A recent security breach reveals the risks. A small software service that provides back-end software solutions for car-hire services had its […]
New I-9 Form
The USCIS has introduced a new I-9 form that will have to be used for new employees. While use is currently voluntary, it will be required from May onward. No need to panic, however — it does not have to be used for current employees, only those who are new, or return to the company after being […]
Now That’s a Hallmark Moment
When you think of Hallmark, you often think of the word “giving.” In a recent case, though, Hallmark will be doing the getting: a repayment of a substantial severance package by a former executive who later used Hallmark’s trade secrets to compete against it. As the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal explained in Hallmark Cards, […]
A Wait at the Gate
For all those employers (all none of you) ready to race ahead and give notices to employees about health insurance exchanges, you are going to have to hold off for awhile. Despite the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) requirement that employers provide written notice (1) informing the employee of the existence of an Exchange, including a […]
Sins of Wages
Both employers and employees need to review their wage statements for the new year, because California has amended Labor Code 226 to identify nine types of information that has to be on each wage statement: (1) gross wages earned, (2) total hours worked by the employee, except for any employee whose compensation is solely based on […]
More Online Services Fall Under the COPPA Cabana
Online content providers – including websites and apps – need to add something to their 2013 To-Do list. Beginning July 1st, the Federal Trade Commission’s new rules under the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) will apply covering more online services. While the new rules have been criticized as “a mess,” they still apply. Most […]
