On October 31, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (“OSHA”) executed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) that aims to promote safe and healthy workplaces and protect workers who speak out about unsafe working conditions. As a result, employers must prepare for increased safety and health enforcement efforts by both NLRB and OSHA. The goal of this collaboration is to strengthen health and safety protections for workers. Among other matters, the MOU sets forth a process for information sharing, training, and outreach between the NLRB and OSHA.

California employers are going through the annual year-end scramble to update policies and practices to comply with the rash of new laws that are taking effect in the upcoming new year. Understandably, businesses in the state are frustrated with the potentially onerous obligations they must keep up with.

In recent years, Cal-OSHA has modified and refined heat illness prevention requirements for outdoor work areas. Now, employers will be facing new Cal-OSHA requirements for indoor work areas. In the past several months, the Cal-OSHA Board (“Board”) has issued multiple rounds of revised standards on Indoor Heat Illness Prevention, with public comment on the most recent revisions closing on November 28, 2023. The Board is scheduled to vote on the latest version in early 2024.

In Mattson Technology, Inc. v. Applied Materials, Inc., a California Court of Appeal ruled that the trial court erred by not staying Applied Materials’ (“Applied) trade secret misappropriation claims against rival Mattson Technology (“Mattson”) while Applied pursued arbitration against its ex-employee who allegedly absconded with confidential information and provided it to Mattson.

The Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) has just approved an amendment to the Safeguards Rule of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) pertaining to reporting obligations for motor vehicle dealers for certain data breaches and other security events to the FTC.

Scali Rasmussen, PC remains committed to bringing awareness of the critical work Give.Mentor.Love. is doing to fight sex trafficking of children and young adults in L.A. County.

In response to a 2021 workplace massacre at the Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, State Senator Cortese moved to pass legislation that requires employers to implement safety plans to prepare for potential outbreaks of serious workplace violence. Senator Cortese’s work resulted in SB 553 which, after much “give-and-take” in Sacramento, was passed by the Legislature on September 20, 2023 and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, 2023.

Employers were overwhelmed with countless obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic, through legislation and emergency standards that focused on the interests of employee safety and wage loss. However, in its recent decision in Corby Kuciemba et al. v. Victory Woodworks Inc., the California Supreme Court drew the line in favor of employers by ruling that employers are not responsible for the spread of COVID-19 to employees’ family members.

The California Supreme Court recently issued its opinion in Raines v. U.S. Healthworks Medical Group, deciding a question from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as to the possible extent of liability for business-entity agents who carry out activities regulated under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) on behalf of employers. Under the FEHA, a covered employer includes: “any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly.”

It has been officially announced by the California Department of Finance that effective January 1, 2024, California’s minimum wage will increase from $15.50 per hour to $16 per hour for all employers, regardless of size.