On July 12, 2019, the Associated Press reported that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta announced he is resigning following renewed scrutiny of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein who is accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

The Ninth Circuit has held in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., that the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, applies retroactively.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it has issued a new opinion letter that addresses whether a service provider for a virtual marketplace company (“Gig” worker) is an employee of the company or an independent contractor under the FLSA. 

As reported by the National Law Review, on April 25, 2019, a federal judge approved the September 30, 2019 deadline for employers to submit EEO-1 pay data.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, in a 5-4 decision (with the conservative justices in the majority), that class arbitration must be explicitly authorized.

The House has passed a bill, the “Paycheck Fairness Act”, which is intended to strength protections against wage discrimination. The chamber voted 242-187 for the Paycheck Fairness Act, with seven Republicans joining Democrats in voting for the bill. The bill was co-sponsored by 238 Democrats and GOP Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.). For more information read here. 

A California Court of Appeal has ruled in Ward v. Tilly, that a scheduling practice used by many employers in which employees are required to call in ahead of time to confirm if they must report to work, is unlawful, unless the employee is paid reporting time pay, even if the employee does not need to report to the worksite.

The California Supreme Court has ruled in Goonewardene v. ADP, LLC, Cal., No. S238941, that ADP, LLC, a national payroll company, is not liable for mistakes made on the employee’s paycheck.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has proposed six (6) months of paid parental leave for parents of newborns.