Vital California Employment Laws

Employment laws are carefully patterned to suit the needs of the place. In California, for instance, employer and employee relationships are regulated by various labor laws and workplace disputes are effectively handled by employment law attorneys.

Employment laws cover deductions, holidays, meal periods, overtime, wages, rest periods and termination. California employment laws have these following provisions on some of the following issues:

Deductions

The law permits an employer to withhold amounts from employee’s wages only in the following instances:

1. State or federal law requires it.
2. Expressly authorized in writing by employees to cover insurance premiums, benefit plan contributions or other deductions not amounting to rebate.
3. Wage or collective bargaining agreement expressly authorizes it like health, welfare or pension contributions.

While Labor Code Sections 221 and 224 permits wage garnishment, an employee cannot be discharged because a garnishment of wages has been threatened or if the employee’s wages have been subjected to enforce judgment.

Holidays

The law does not require that holiday pay be given if the business closes on a holiday or if it coincides with the employee’s day off.

Moreover, the law does not require paying premium pay for work performed on a holiday, Saturday or Sunday other than the overtime premium for hours worked in excess of eight hours in a workday or 40 hours in a workweek.

Meal Periods

An employee who works for a period of more than five hours per day should be provided with a meal period of not less than thirty minutes. When an employee has a total daily work period of not more than six hours, meal period may be waived only by mutual consent of both the employee and employer.

Another meal period of not less than thirty minutes should be provided if an employee works for more than ten hours per day. Waiver may be executed if the total hours worked is not more than 12 hours provided the first meal period is not waived.

Discharge/Discrimination

Any discharge, threatened discharge, demotion, suspension or any discrimination against the terms and conditions of employment for engaging in a “protected activity” under jurisdiction of the labor commissioner may be a subject of a complaint. A case may be filed with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

In case of labor dispute, it is always advised to engage the services of an employment law attorney for proper case assessment and handling.