As we come to the end of 2016 and get ready for 2017, this alert will provide you with a run-down of the new laws affecting your business. This is not a substitute for the in-depth presentation of these new laws provided by the CNCDA. We encourage all of our clients and friends to attend the CNCDA’s various New Laws seminars hosted at locations around the state. Check out www.cncda.org for news on where you can attend one of these valuable seminars.

It is very common to see policies in employee handbooks that provide for a 60 or 90-day “Introductory Period” for new employees. But what really is the legal effect of these?

The California Equal Pay Act took effect in 2016 to address disparities in pay based on gender. Now this law is seeing more changes for 2017. Effective January 1, 2017, the Equal Pay Act has been expanded to address pay disparities based on race and ethnicity as well.

With the New Year comes new minimum wage increases. The California minimum wage rises from $10 to $10.50 per hour effective January 1st, 2017. In addition, San Diego’s minimum wage increases from $10.50 to $11.50 on January 1st. The minimum wage in some of the larger cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Monica all have increases coming on July 1st so we will provide updates on those increases next year.

Holiday parties are an opportunity for employers to show their appreciation to employees for their work over the course of the year and they create a nice tradition that can enhance employee morale. But among the mirth and good cheer can lurk an HR professional’s nightmare. Yeah, we’ve heard the stories. So here are some tips for planning company social events any time of the year.

Consumer Trends Pulling Auto Manufacture and Sales Into the Future—an article by The Scali Law Firm attorneys Chris Scali and Melanie Joo—was featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2016 Automotive Review.

Today the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction that blocks the Department of Labor’s new minimum salary requirements for the federal white collar overtime exemptions, which were set to take effect December 1, 2016. The Court held that the DOL’s new salary rules are contrary to legislative intent and that the DOL exceeded its authority with respect to the new minimum salary requirements, as well as the future automatic adjustments.

Next week, a Texas federal court is expected to rule on whether the U.S. Department of Labor’s new overtime rules will take effect as scheduled on Dec. 1, 2016. These new rules, which raise the minimum salary requirements for the Executive, Administrative and Professional exemptions to $913 per week ($47,476 annually) and set automatic future adjustments, have been challenged as unlawful by a number of states.

Earlier this year we notified you about the new expanded union persuader rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor this past spring. On Wednesday a Texas federal judge permanently blocked the DOL’s enforcement of these expansions to the persuader rule, finding that the rule is unlawful.

The Northern California Record interviewed Scali Law Firm founder and managing partner, Christian Scali, about this ruling from California's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Their decision in Gonzales v. CarMax reversed a district court’s summary judgment in favor of CarMax Auto Superstores LLC and remanded with instructions to enter summary judgment for plaintiff Travis Gonzales. Gonzalez filed the lawsuit against CarMax under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law.

Since 2004, the Paid Family Leave program has provided monetary benefits to employees who have to temporarily miss work to care for a sick family member or to bond with a new child. This program is funded through employee payroll deductions into the State Disability Insurance fund. Earlier this year, the Governor signed into law a bill that will take effect January of 2018 to increase these benefits.

Final pay checks have special protections under California law, and therefore, employers must be very careful in calculating and issuing them. We often encounter situations in which an employer wishes to make deductions from an employee’s final paycheck for business losses, such as unreturned uniforms or equipment.

Most employers have had employees request time off for medical reasons at some point, either for planned medical procedures, or when the employee is out unexpectedly and notifies the employer that he/she cannot return to work for some period of time. However many employers are unaware of the specific response and notification requirements that are triggered once they are put on notice of an employee’s need for medical leave.

Do you run internet searches or check social media accounts on job applicants? For some employers the internet has become a tool to further screen prospective employees. However, employers must be careful in how they go about gathering such information because search engines and social media sites may expose the employer to information involving protected categories.

Part 2 of the article Selling Your Dealership: Organizational and Compliance Considerations, by Scali Law Firm attorneys Christian J. Scali, John P. Swenson and Gus N. Paras, was published in Automotive Buy Sell Report.

This article, by Daily Journal staff writer Eli Wolfe, discusses The Scali Law Firm's recent expansion into Sacramento with the hiring of Monica J. Baumann.

In the October/November 2016 issue of West Coast Dealer, The Scali Law Firm published a template letter of opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for independent auto dealers to consider completing and sending to the CFPB in advance of its rule-making concerning the potential ban on class action waivers in automobile financing agreements.