Author: Ruth Silver Taube (Ruth Silver Taube)

Residential care facilities for the elderly receive among the largest wage theft judgments of any industry, according to Matthew Sirolly, a staff attorney with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office who advises the agency on how to enforce wage theft judgments. These judgments are meaningless unless they are enforced. Residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs), often...

Structural racism has been an impediment for Black Americans and has had an impact on the economy. If the Black wage, education, housing and investing gaps had been closed 20 years ago, it would have added an estimated $16 trillion to the economy, according to a report by Citi, with the Black pay gap alone accounting...

One recommendation of the Workers Health, Safety and Rights Committee of San Jose’s Recovery Task Force is that the city should require employers to provide more permanent paid sick days like Oakland, San Francisco and other California cities. San Jose is an outlier in the Bay Area because it provides no more than the three...

This column is my end of year summary of important new employment laws coming in 2023. California is at the forefront of groundbreaking laws. This year is no exception. AB 257—Fast-Food Council that sets industry standards The bill creates a state Fast-Food Council that will establish sector-wide minimum standards on wages, hours and working conditions...

Retaliation against workers who speak up when they have had their workplace rights violated through wage theft, sexual harassment or other unlawful abuses is prevalent in California. It functions to undercut all of California’s labor laws, turning our strong, clear legal standards into an inconsistent mess in the reality of workplace interactions. Retaliation takes many...

Unpaid work-based programs are often the cornerstone of alcohol and drug rehab. In a July 7, 2020 article that is part of a Reveal investigative series on these programs, reporter Shoshana Walter said her team identified at least 300 rehab facilities in 44 states that required unpaid labor from participants. They found that, in recent...

On Labor Day, Gov. Gavin Newson signed the landmark bill, AB 257, the FAST Recovery Act, into law. The law will establish a 10-member council with four seats held by fast-food franchisor and franchisee representatives, four seats held by fast-food worker representatives and advocates and two seats held by representatives of the Department of Industrial Relations...

On July 28, Amazon warehouse worker Fernanda Torres filed a class action lawsuit alleging the company failed to provide lactation accommodations in violation of the law. Torres alleged Amazon’s breastfeeding workers are forced to take unpaid breaks to pump milk and risk discipline for not meeting quotas. She also alleged breastfeeding workers often wait in...

Allegations of wage theft loom over Palo Alto as several janitors who clean the city’s facilities have filed at least $23,000 in wage claims, not including penalties. The janitors filed claims with the Labor Commission against the city’s janitorial services vendor, SWA Services Group, a non-union company. These troubling allegations highlight the failure of one...

“We’re being robbed,” said Georgina Hernandez, a janitorial worker whose former employer was ordered to pay workers over $1.7 million for multiple wage theft violations in 2014. Five years later, Hernandez and other employees have not received a dime. Ms. Hernandez is not alone. A 2014 report the Eastern Research Group prepared for the Department...