On May 20, 2020, San Diego County was approved for a state variance to move forward and allow additional businesses to reopen. Under the variance, restaurants will be permitted to have customers dine-in, and retail establishments will be permitted to have customers in-store with certain restrictions. San Diego is one of the first larger counties…

Following in the footsteps of the cities of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, San Francisco, and San Jose, the City of Oakland adopted a new supplemental emergency sick leave ordinance on May 18, 2020.  The ordinance takes effect immediately and is intended to apply to employers who are not covered by…

Under the California Workers’ Compensation Act (“the Act”), employers must carry workers’ compensation insurance for employee injuries or illnesses which “arise out of and in the course of” employment. The Act, first passed in 1911 and amended over the years by the Legislature, provides a comprehensive system for administering claims, including the provision of disability…

The City of Los Angeles has enacted two Ordinances requiring fair employment practices in response to job and economic insecurity due to COVID-19 related shelter in place orders.  The Ordinances, which go into effect on June 14, 2020, apply to four categories of businesses and employers which the City found have been especially impacted by…

California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a plan to allow the limited reopening of some businesses beyond those in the category of essential critical infrastructure. This limited reopening is part of the “Resilience Roadmap” for California, the multi-phase plan to modify the statewide stay-at-home Order, originally issued on March 19, 2020, in response…

Last week, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors enacted an urgency ordinance to require employers with 500 or more employees nationally to provide supplemental paid sick leave to covered employees for COVID-19 related reasons. The County’s ordinance applies only to businesses in unincorporated areas of the County and to employees who perform any work within…

Before the COVID-19 crisis, there were limited paid leave entitlements in California for employees requiring time off to deal with childcare and school closures. California Labor Code 230.8 required that employers of 25 or more employees working at the same location were required to provide employees with up to 40 hours of unpaid leave within…

As shelter in place orders were rolled out in California, many businesses transitioned their workforce to remote work for the first time. Employers had to determine how to track hours worked or what qualified as a business expense. However, other unique questions arise with a remote workforce, such as how to handle employees using marijuana…