Most Popular

News Notes: Employer Never ‘Paid’ Employee Whose Paycheck Was Illegally Intercepted

  Felix C. Villafuerte complained to the Labor Commissioner that Pasadena-based Inter-Con Security Systems Inc. never paid him his final wages when he quit. Inter-Con claimed it had mailed a final paycheck to Villafuerte but that an unknown person had illegally intercepted and cashed it by forging Villafuerte’s signature. A California Court of Appeal now […]

New Law Exempts Certain Motion Picture Employees from Meal Period Rules

Governor Schwarzenegger has signed A.B. 1734, a measure exempting certain motion picture and broadcasting workers who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement from meal period requirements under state law (in the Labor Code and Wage Orders). The exemption applies to employees in the motion picture industry or broadcasting industry, as those industries are defined […]

HHS Solicits Comments on Essential Health Benefits

An important component of health reform implementation is the imposition of an “essential benefits” package (of health goods and services that insurers of groups and individuals must cover). Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), that benefit package will be de rigueur (1) for policies sold on exchanges and (2) insurers of small […]

Certain religious employers get a reprieve from ACA’s contraceptive mandate from Supreme Court

On New Year’s Eve, just hours before the healthcare reform (also known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA) contraceptive mandate requirement was supposed to go into effect, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stay and gave the federal government until Friday to respond to the Court. The stay applies to a limited group […]

More Protections for Disabled Employees Coming

By Alix Herber and Michelle Johnston The Ontario government is leading the Canadian provinces in its push for accessibility for people with disabilities, a ratio that is estimated to rise to one in five people in Canada by 2025. In accordance with a new regulation under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), Ontario […]

News Notes: Social Security Administration To Pay $7.75 Million In Bias Case

The Social Security Administration has agreed to pay $7.75 million to settle a lawsuit by 2,200 male African-American current and former employees who claimed they were denied promotions and pay because of their race and sex. The lawsuit charged that African-American men were kept in low-grade jobs and were more likely to be disciplined than […]

Rhode Island Recognizes Other States’ Same-sex Marriages

Same-sex marriage is not legal in Rhode Island, but employers there must make provision for employees’ same-sex spouses nonetheless. Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) on May 14 signed an executive order announcing that Rhode Island will recognize the validity of same-sex marriages entered into in states where it is legal. The executive order went into effect […]