Recent Decisions
I summarize recent California employment-law decisions here—brief, plain-English notes on what changed and what it means for resolving a dispute.
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict for six former transit workers on Title VII and FEHA failure-to-accommodate claims, holding that an employer must show alternatives to vaccination were less safe by a substantial, excessive, or unjustifiable margin to prove undue hardship.
The Ninth Circuit held that neither tribal sovereign immunity nor a tribe’s conferral of absolute immunity bars a terminated officer’s individual-capacity civil rights and tort claims against tribal officials.
Senate Bill 1316 lets the Labor Commissioner renew wage liens on an employer’s real property and bars parties from using records they withheld from a duly served request in certain enforcement proceedings.
The Ninth Circuit dismissed a creditors’ appeal over the dischargeability of a PAGA judgment in bankruptcy, holding that the district court’s order was not final because it resolved only one exception and remanded the rest for trial.
The Fourth District held that a second motion to compel arbitration seeking the same relief is a renewed motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 1008—even when it rests on a different arbitration agreement—and dismissed the appeal.
General Counsel Crystal S. Carey issued GC Memo 26-04 identifying precedents she has asked, or intends to ask, the Board to revisit, while telling regions to keep processing cases under current Board law.
The Ninth Circuit held that offering employees a reassignment process with only a limited chance of placement is not, as a matter of law, a reasonable religious accommodation under Title VII—reversing summary judgment for the employer.
The First District affirmed a finding that defendants waived their right to arbitrate by launching a full discovery campaign and filing cross-pleadings before moving to compel—and rejected their argument that the federal sexual-harassment arbitration law excused the delay.
The Ninth Circuit held that a plaintiff who discovers a sexual harassment claim during arbitration may still invoke the EFAA and proceed in court, even after first litigating other claims in arbitration.
The Second District affirmed an order compelling SpaceX to comply with a Civil Rights Department subpoena, rejecting arguments that FEHA’s territorial limits barred the agency from investigating a Washington-based employee’s complaint.