December 2nd, 2008 
James Peters In most layoff situations, especially these days, the layoff is legitimate and a necessary evil in cutting costs. However, just because an employee has not been wrongfully terminated in a layoff does not mean they have no California employment law rights. One common example is receiving all unpaid vacation pay.
Under California employment laws, once employees have accrued… Continue reading
August 7th, 2008 James Peters Over the past couple of months I have been dealing with a case against a major national bank on behalf of one of its former employees. The case involves his “discretionary” annual bonus, which most employers would say is just that-discretionary. However, the term discretionary is misleading because except in some very limited circumstances a party to a contract does not have absolute discretion.
This… Continue reading
Posted in Wages : Other 
Tags: Bonuses, California Employment Law, Cases, Employment Contracts, Wages and Hours 
1 Comment » March 29th, 2008 James Peters It is fairly common for sweeping employment law legislation to be introduced in the California legislature and I usually do not pay much attention to these bills because they usually do not become law.
One of two things almost always happens: (1) the republicans introduce a pro-employer bill that will never pass the democratically-controlled legislature or (2) the democrats introduce a pro-employee bill that passes but is then vetoed by… Continue reading
Posted in Wages : Other Tags: Breaks, California Employment Law, Policy : Legislation, Wages and Hours 1 Comment » November 3rd, 2007 James Peters As the end of the year approached, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed several employee protections the California legislature passed in 2007. While he felt it was important to give full protections to military spouses whose husbands or wives were on leave, he deemed other employees to be less deserving of similar rights.
This is the first in a series of posts on several important employee rights bills that the legislature passed this… Continue reading
January 4th, 2007 James Peters I have worked for a company over 20 years and now I am retiring. I never took a vacation the last ten years I worked there. Each year I lost all of the vacation time I did not use. My son told me that is illegal in California. Is that true?
–Need a Vacation (CA)
A: Your son is correct. In California, so-called Continue reading
Posted in Q&A, Wages : Other Tags: California Employment Law, Q&A, Vacation Pay, Wages and Hours 20 Comments » December 31st, 2006 James Peters My employer terminated me today (December 31, 2006). I was supposed to receive a $10,000 performance bonus for 2006, but one of the terms of my bonus agreement says that I have to be employed on January 1, 2007 to get my bonus. The company is not doing very well and I think I was actually terminated so that they did not have to pay me… Continue reading
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