California employment law moves fast.  Here’s your round-up of recent notable headlines.

Week of 6/17:

• AB 5.  Rideshare companies lost an attempt to invalidate California’s AB 5, which broadened the application of the “ABC” test used to classify workers as employees or independent contractors.  Correctly classifying workers requires detailed analysis; misclassifying them comes with big costs.  You can read the Ninth Circuit’s opinion here.
• Arbitration Agreements.  Arbitration agreements are worth their weight in gold.  Employees often challenge them by claiming they cannot remember signing them.  To beat this attack, companies must have effective recordkeeping practices in place to create and retain records to prove employees signed arbitration agreements.  Read more about this type of challenge here.
• Unfair Labor Practices.  Union campaigns are messy and tricky to navigate without triggering an unfair labor practices claim.  The NLRB has been active in this area in recent years.  Read about one such case here.
• Fitness For Duty Exams.  State and federal law prohibiting discrimination severely restricts employers’ right to use fitness for duty exams.  If done wrong, fitness for duty exams create massive risks, including the risk of class action litigation.  One such case reminds us of the risk (available here).
• Workplace Violence Prevention Plans.  Reminder that California employers have less than two weeks to create and implement a workplace violence prevention plan.  Read more about it here.

For more about these topics and other employment issues, contact Dutch Schotemeyer (Dutch.Schotemeyer@ndlf.com or 949.271.7260) or Jason Morris (Jason.Morris@ndlf.com or 949.271.7177).