EMPLOYMENT LAW

Employer Services Page

Personnel Policy Creation & Implementation

Disability and Reasonable Accommodation Compliance

Sexual Harassment & Hostile Work Environment Policies

Wage & Hour Law Compliance

Personnel Evaluation & Performance Reviews

Disciplinary Process & Separation Guidance

EEOC & DFEH Response to Charges

Civil Defense of Wrongful Termination

Wage & Hour Law Policies & Compliance

Wage & Hour Law Services & DLSE Representation

for Employers

The important task of properly resolving and also implementing timely corrective measures for Wage and Hour issues can be a pitfall for many employers, but especially for the smaller business with limited resources.

Small businesses must stay current on Wage & Hour laws and updates to ensure that employees are being properly classified, as well as fully compensated for compensable hours worked.

Additionally, the small business must also (as a matter of good business practices) have processes that ensure that employees are properly and timely paid in accordance with California Wage and Hour laws and regulations.

Failure to comply with applicable Wage & Hour law can lead to costly penalties under the Labor Code.

This service can provide the needed guidance to assure that the employer's practice and policies are in compliance with updated California Wage & Hour laws. It is also important to maintain and update Job Classifications for all positions so as to maintain compliance in this important and evolving area.

California Disability Law Compliance

Implementing the appropriate policies and processes for handling various disability and reasonable accommodation issues is a critical function for the small and newly established business.

The protective scope of California disability laws extends beyond Federal disability laws and requires employers to meaningfully engage in a good faith interactive process when presented with employee disability and reasonable accommodation issues.

Such issues in the employment setting, however, don't always arise in as a clear and discernible manner. Instead, the employer must be able to identify those facts and circumstances that trigger its mandatory obligations under California and Federal disability laws.

Because of cost issues, smaller businesses will sometimes wait for these issues to arise before any effort is made to try to figure out how they can maintain an actual system of compliance. This type of approach can potentially bring about costly legal consequences.

Our approach is to take steps early on to put the policies and processes in place, including proper training on these policies, before these issues arise. This will enable to the employer to better recognize and resolve these issues and do so before costly compliance problems evolve

Harassment & Hostile Work

Environment Policies

Creating and implementing harassment and hostile work environment prevention policies is both a necessary and mandatory aspect of personnel management.

Both the Federal and California State laws prohibiting unlawful harassment in the workplace are comprehensive in scope and mandatory in application. Failing to properly administer such legally required mandates can be costly for the smaller business operation.

Employers must provide employees with sufficient and clear notices regarding the employer's anti-harassment policies. . Also, clear and transparent procedures must be readily available for employees who need to report incidents of unlawful harassment and hostile work environment.

An equally important measure that the employer must provide is proper and unbiased procedures for timely and fully investigating reports of unlawful harassment. The employer has an affirmative obligation when presented with reports of unlawful harassment to conducting a timely and full investigation, and to also immediate complete corrective action calculated to end the harassment and hostile work environment.

Too often, however, employers have written policies that may recite law, but the actual procedures are not in place to substantively investigate and end the harassment. Inadequate policies and procedures in this area can fuel conflict in employer-employee relations, and, especially for the smaller business, potentially result in costly legal disputes.

While the mere existence of proper policies does not prevent lawsuits, such policies do represent a significant step towards good business practices. Those good business practices, in turn, promote better employer-employee relations