Insights

The California Supreme Court held that employers cannot use the practice of rounding time punches in the meal period context, and that unrounded time records that show noncompliant meal periods raise a rebuttable presumption of meal period violations, including at the summary judgment stage. Donohue v. AMN Services, LLC, No. S253677 (February 25, 2021).

On January 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued new employer guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. This guidance is intended to help employers and workers outside the healthcare setting to identify risks of being exposed to and of contracting COVID-19 and to determine any appropriate control measures to implement. While this guidance is largely duplicative of prior OSHA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) guidance and recommendations, it contains a few new and updated recommendations that employers should note.

This past year brought new laws requiring changes to policies commonly found in California employee handbooks. To ensure compliance with current California law, employers should review and update their handbooks within these first few months of 2021.