Bill Introduced to Speed Up Contract Negotiations Between Public Employers and Police and Fire Unions

California employers have long grappled with two wage and hour questions:

1. What rate of pay should be used to calculate meal and rest period premiums in California?
2. Does the facially neutral “rounding” of employee work time, which results in a small subset of employees being undercompensated, result in systematic undercompensation on a class-wide basis?

The Appellate Division affirmed a lower court decision which held the employer properly refused to pay sales commissions to a former employee where the customer paid for the product only after the employee had left the company. Because the employer’s policy expressly stated that employees would not be paid commissions on sales where the employer received payment after the employee terminated, and the employee continued to work for the company even after he was aware of the policy, the Appellate Division held that the employee could not recover the commissions under the Wage Payment Law or a theory of quantum meruit.

On November 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) applies to all states and political subdivisions—regardless of their size.