Michelle Barineau

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Michelle Barineau counsels clients on a broad range of labor and employment issues. She helps clients navigate matters involving discrimination, harassment, family and medical leave, wage and hour compliance, non-competition, trade secrets, and other issues arising under state and federal employment laws. She routinely provides guidance pertaining to employee handbooks, employment agreements, and workplace policies. Michelle also has experience investigating employment complaints and she frequently partners with white collar colleagues to conduct internal workplace culture assessments and audits in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

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In an effort to close gender and racial pay gaps, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill (SB) 973 to require certain California employers to submit an annual pay data report to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) starting next year. The new law largely mirrors the EEO-1 “Component 2” pay data reporting requirement, which was imposed by the Obama administration and has been suspended by the Trump administration.

Under SB 973, private employers that have 100 or more employees and are required to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) must submit a pay data report to the DFEH covering the prior calendar year. The report must include: (1) the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in each of ten job categories (the same job categories used in the EEO-1); (2) the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex whose annual earnings fall within each of the pay bands used by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; and (3) the total number of hours worked by each employee counted in each pay band. Employers with multiple establishments in California must submit a report for each establishment and a consolidated report that includes all employees. Employees include all individuals on payroll, whether full- or part-time, for whom the employer must withhold federal social security taxes and include in an EEO-1 Report.…

Continue Reading California to Require Annual Pay Data Reporting to DFEH

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill (SB) 1159, which adds COVID-19-related illness or death to the list of injuries covered under the state’s workers’ compensation program and creates new employer reporting responsibilities. The law codifies and extends Executive Order N-62-20, which was issued on May 6, 2020 and created a rebuttable presumption that employees with a COVID-19-related illness on or before July 5, 2020 contracted the virus at work and were eligible for workers’ compensation. The new law is retroactive to July 6, 2020 and expires on January 1, 2023.

Disputable Presumption for COVID-19 Cases During Workplace “Outbreaks”

Workers’ compensation generally provides benefits for employees who are injured or become ill in the course of their employment. Given the wide reach of COVID-19, however, it may be difficult to identify where the employee was exposed to the coronavirus for the purposes of showing that their exposure was caused by and arose out of their employment. In California, however, SB 1159 creates a “disputable presumption” that a COVID-19-related illness arose out of and in the course of employment, and is thus compensable, for employees who test positive during a COVID-19 “outbreak” at the employee’s “specific place of employment,” and whose employer has five or more employees. The new law specifies that workers’ compensation awarded for COVID-19 claims includes “full hospital, surgical, medical treatment, disability indemnity, and death benefits.”…

Continue Reading New California COVID-19 Workers’ Comp Bill Creates Disputable Presumption and New Reporting Requirements

Governor Newsom has signed Senate Bill (SB) 1383 to significantly expand the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).  The CFRA is California’s counterpart to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and provides unpaid family and medical leave of up to 12 weeks for eligible employees.  The new law’s key revisions are summarized below and take effect on January 1, 2021.
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Continue Reading New Law Expands California Family Rights Act

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill (AB) 1867, to create COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (CPSL) requirements for employers with 500 or more employees, filling a gap left by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which applies only to employers with under 500 employees.  The new law also codifies existing supplemental paid sick leave requirements for certain food-sector workers that were implemented in April under California Executive Order E.O. N-51-20.

AB 1867 took effect on September 19, 2020.  It will expire on December 31, 2020, although if Congress extends the emergency sick leave provisions of the FFCRA, the provisions of AB 1867 would automatically be extended for the same period.…

Continue Reading California Mandates COVID-19 Supplemental Sick Leave for Larger Employers

In a positive development for businesses, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has published a final rule setting a new, stricter standard for determining joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The new rule, which takes effect on April 27, 2020, comes on the heels of a recent rule published by the Department of Labor narrowing the scope of joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The new NLRB rule specifies that a business will be deemed a joint employer of another entity’s employees only if the business has “substantial direct and immediate control” over one or more essential terms of employment. Essential terms of employment are wages, benefits, hours of work, hiring, discharge, discipline, supervision, and direction.…

Continue Reading NLRB Issues Final “Joint-Employer” Rule

Bolstering the state’s reputation for progressive employment legislation, California has become the first state to ban discrimination based on natural hair and protective hairstyles.  On July 3, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 188, which amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), specifying that “hair discrimination targeting hairstyles associated…

On April 29, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter finding that “virtual marketplace company” workers (of an unnamed business) were independent contractors rather than employees.  While not binding, the opinion signals that DOL is taking a less aggressive approach than in recent years to the hot-button issue of worker classification in the online “gig economy.”  Companies with similar business models that link workers with consumers through technology platforms or “virtual marketplaces” — such as for transportation, delivery, moving, cleaning and household services — may be able to rely on the new opinion to establish a good-faith defense under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of their classification of workers as independent contractors.
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Continue Reading DOL Labels Gig Economy Company’s Workers as Independent Contractors