2011-12 Legislative & Case Law Update

Presented by Gary W. Bethel

Continental Breakfast: 7:30 am - 8:30 am
Presentation and Q&A Session: 8:30 am - 11:30 am or longer if necessary

Location: 
The Santa Maria Inn
801 South Broadway
Santa Maria, CA  93454

*Program Cost: $97.50
Online registration only by credit card via Pay Pal.  Due to limited space availability, prepayment is required to reserve your seat. Please register early. Last year a number of potential attendees had to be turned away due to space restrictions.

Program Description:
This Briefing will include a review of the legislation signed into law at the federal and state level, which will impact California employers in 2012. For the first time since 2003, California's legislative process was controlled by a governor and a legislature of the same party. As we anticipated last year, Governor Brown was much more active in signing pro-employee legislation than former Governor Schwarzenegger. The review of new California legislation will include: restricting the use of credit reports for employment purposes; the new requirement that employers' continue an employee's health care insurance the entire time she is covered by pregnancy disability leave; the Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2011 requirement of providing written notice to all new hires of basic wage related information; the amendments to the Fair Employment and Housing Act related to the expanded definition of sex to include "gender expression;" the new wage and hour legislation related to employers record keeping obligations, new exposure to liquidated damages, etc.; the impact of the new California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 and more. The federal review will include: the status of the Obama employment agenda and other legislative developments that all employers should be aware of during 2011; an overview of the impact of the Obama administration directives from the NLRB (new proposed posting requirement); the USCIS recent clarifications (documents accepted for I-9s); and recent direction provided from the DOL and EEOC on other issues; and more.

Trends From 2011 And How That Should Impact Employers Planning For 2012: This component of the Briefing will focus on trends and issues in employment law that have arisen in 2011, based on enforcement strategies by the various federal and state agencies and how employers should respond to these trends in their day-to-day operations. The focus will be on what employers can do in anticipation of problems, and what practical steps can be taken to avoid problems in these areas.

The Briefing will also include a review of the most relevant California and Federal case law highlighting the most significant 2011 federal and state court decisions impacting employers in the areas of wage and hour, leaves of absence, disability, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful discharge and other areas of employment law.

A partial list of the topics to be covered includes:

Wage and Hour: The California Supreme Court's oral argument in the Brinker and Brinkley decisions took place on November 8, 2011. The court's decision must be issued by February 8, 2012. Depending on the whether a decision has been issued, we will look at the current status of California's meal and rest period issues in light of the California Supreme Court's decision. If Brinker and Brinkley decisions have still not been issued, we will review the most important wage and hour case law developments in 2011 and how those decisions will impact California employers. We will also review other recent DOL and DLSE guidance on wage and hour issues as a part of this update.

Immigration Enforcement in the Obama Administration: An overview of the Obama administration's enforcement efforts through the USCIS (DHS & ICE) and DOL, and what employers should do in light of the fact that social security no-match letters are back. How has the DHS' focus on "employers" and I-9 compliance played out in 2011, and how should employers respond? Attendees will be provided with tools to use in checking their own I-9 compliance issues.

Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation: Review of recent decisions and how they should impact employers compliance efforts and harassment policies in 2012. Our review will include: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision extending the "cat's paw" theory to discrimination cases; the significance of the U.S Supreme Court's denial of class action status in the Walmart discrimination class action case will be discussed; the impact of state and federal courts continuing expansion the definition of "retaliation," which is an element of 36% of all claims filed with the EEOC; and much more.

Other Subject Areas Will Include, But Are Not Limited To: Wrongful discharge developments in the area of arbitration in the workplace and the "game changer" decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which allowed limitations on the filing of class actions; Privacy & confidentiality – the importance of emails in a litigation context; the possible criminal prosecution of employees who access corporate networks in violation of company policy; Facebook postings and the NLRB's actions against employers who take adverse action against employees who make employment related postings; Disability discrimination related developments. There will be plenty of issues to discuss based on the numerous important case law developments during 2011.

Suggested Employee Handbook Updates: A part of this session will include practical advice regarding the impact of various regulations and decisions on the updating of your current employee handbook policies.

PDFs of Recent Guidance: There will be an opportunity for those who attend to request various documents to be emailed to them. This will include information on numerous issues including a sample of the new written notice required for all new hires effective January 1, 2012, the new USCIS guidance on acceptable employment authorization documents (EAD) for I-9 purposes; the new NLRB poster which may be required in 2012 and NLRB guidance on Facebook postings and many others.