Welcome to the MoFo ELC Blog

MoFo ELC equips our clients with the most up-to-date and relevant information on employment and labor law issues, covering key judicial, litigation, and legislative developments, their implications for employers, and strategies to ensure compliance and avoid lawsuits. To learn more about our capabilities, please visit the Employment + Labor practice page and read about our Team.

January 05, 2018 - Legislation
The California Legislature and The Trump Administration: Different Directions
It was another busy year in the California Legislature with regard to employment and labor issues. Of particular note for California employers are the new laws related to employee hiring practices with the prohibitions on requesting an employment applicant’s salary history information, limitations on
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November 05, 2017 - Privacy & Data Security
Hot Topics For Multinational Employers: Privacy In The Workplace, The EU General Data Protection Regulation, And Brexit
By: Hanno Timner, Annabel Gillham and Lara M. King
Increasing digitalisation of the workplace means that many routine activities nowadays entail the processing of employees’ personal information. Sophisticated data management tools allow for greater efficiency and help to identify and contain business risks. What often follows is harmonisation of HR data platforms within
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October 05, 2017 - OFCCP
Workplace Bias and Gender Pay Equity in Silicon Valley
By: Eric Akira Tate and Annabel Gillham
It was only a couple of years ago, on March 27, 2015, that a jury rejected Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination claims and rendered a defense verdict in favor of her former employer, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The Ellen Pao case, and
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September 05, 2017 - Workplace Misconduct
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Survive Dismissal: Castleberry v. STI Group
The Third Circuit has recently taken steps to resolve inconsistent precedent regarding the standard for pleading hostile work environment harassment. In Castleberry v. STI Group , decided in July, the Third Circuit held for the first time that a single, isolated offensive comment could
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August 05, 2017 - EEOC
Let Us Pray: The Challenges of Accommodating Muslim Prayer in the Workplace
Some prayers go unheard; others go to the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission. Recently, employers in three states have faced actions from Muslim employees demanding increased accommodation for prayer in the workplace. In May, an employer in Minnesota refused to schedule prayer breaks requested
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July 06, 2017 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
When One Person's Scent Is Another Person's Disability
A California jury recently awarded a $3.3 million verdict to a California Department of Transportation (“CALTRANS”) employee who alleged a variety of disability-related claims involving CALTRANS’s failure to properly accommodate his allergy to certain scents and his supervisor’s and co-workers’ retaliatory actions in light
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June 05, 2017 - Legislation
“On The Seventh Day He (She) Rested” . . . Maybe
It took 124 years, but the California Supreme Court in Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc., No. S224611, 2017 WL 1833143 (Cal. May 8, 2017) finally addressed in detail California’s day-of-rest statutes (Labor Code Sections 551, et seq.) originally enacted in 1893. Such a seemingly simple
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May 06, 2017 - Legislation
San Jose Thinks It Knows The Way
The Economic Policy Institute has reported that, in 2016, as many as 4 million workers nationwide wanted but were unable to obtain full-time work. While some have debated these numbers, the City of San Jose, California, has attempted to tackle the issue with a
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April 06, 2017 - Immigration
The Don(ald) Of A New Era: Are Workplace Immigration Raids On The Horizon?
The Place: A car wash in Los Angeles The Time: The 1970s The Scene: A busy afternoon at the car wash. Immigration agents burst onto the property in search of undocumented workers. The cashier—wife of the manager— yells frantically into the public address mic,
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March 06, 2017 - Pay Equity
The Movement For Equal Pay In The Workplace: Progressive State Laws Carry The Torch
Although strides have been made over the past few decades to achieve pay equity for women and other protected classes of individuals, the facts (and the sentiment expressed in the above quote) make clear that there is still a ways to go. Indeed, new
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