Posted on 06/21/2015 12:07:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
The other forty-nine states do not fully comprehend how the Golden State has engineered the demolition of a positive job environment. The only thing most hear about today is the drought and our government-enhanced water shortage. The way most Americans become familiar with the anti-employer environment is if another one of our companies moves to their area or one of our residents moves to their area, telling horror stories of how their business was killed by the force of the accumulated regulations. The only businesses that seem to be impervious are located in Silicon Valley or the new Silicon Beach (Santa Monica). More ‘do gooder’ legislation regarding employees has been passed which will send more California companies coming your way.
I had one of my regular lunches with Eli Kantor, an attorney who specializes in employment issues, to discuss some of the current issues facing employers in California. If you run a business today, even as small as ten employees or less, you need an attorney on retainer to educate you about the employment issues. This is why many small companies are turning their employees over to leasing companies just to get out from under the exposure to the ever-changing federal and state laws with all the related litigation. Also, if you confront the Employment Development Department (EDD) in California regarding an employee’s complaint, you better know that as an employer you are considered guilty until proven innocent. Even if the employee is not filing a complaint, the EDD will enforce rules against your company if they perceive an opening to do such.
The latest proclamation from the potentates of Sacramento is the Paid Sick Leave Act that goes into effect July 1st. One can make an argument that sick leave should be provided by employers and, in a competitive marketplace, many employers will do so to attract quality employees. Many already do such. Now they have no option in California.
The basic elements of the plan are as follows for an employer:
1. You must provide at least 24 hours per year of paid sick leave for each eligible employee to use per year.2. You must display posters for employees and alert them to their sick leave rights at the time of hire.
3. You must keep records of how many sick leave hours have been earned and used for three years.
4. You must show on the employee’s pay stub each pay period how much sick leave has been accrued and unused.
The law comes with the usual government threat today – a penalty of $50 per day per employee for non-compliance. Of course, the national payroll services are all over this and will help protect the employer and keep them in compliance for an additional fee.
When I met with Eli not only was he fully abreast of the law, but he was deep into changing employment plans. Many companies have adopted a policy of what is referred to as “Paid Time Off (PTO).” Under PTO plans, a set amount of days is allocated for the year by the employer (say 15) for which you can use for whatever purpose you wish, whether it be sick days, vacation or a family event like a graduation. In California, PTO’s are out because those employers must regress to earlier days where employees did not have as much flexibility so that the employer can comply with the law keeping separate records for sick leave.
So now we not only have new costs for employers to provide sick leave, but for even the employers who did provide sick leave they have new payroll record costs and legal costs for changing employment plans to meet the new law. It is always so easy to dictate things like the Sacramento potentates do without worrying about the related costs of the rules they foist upon businesses.
If this is not bad enough, Eli and I Iurched into a discussion of the myriad of other new requirements. Just leasing out employees does not protect you against compliance with a new law protecting against transgender discrimination. Though one cannot argue all people should be treated fairly, it may be a little challenging when the transgender person gets to choose the bathroom of their wishes.
The choicest new law is one regarding employment bullying. This goes beyond sexual harassment to require “bullying” education classes. Eli perceives this as a trial lawyer’s dream as anyone who does not like their boss can claim they were a bully. There goes the lawsuit machine and settlements dictated by insurance companies to save legal costs.
With the generation that is coming into the workplace that has had an outsized focus on their self-esteem, i.e., awards for losing on sports teams and now demanding to be alerted in their college classes (triggers) about possible things that might offend them in their college literature, we have now completed the cycle by allowing them to legally whine if their boss tells them to do something that offends their sensibilities. The days of Swimming with Sharks is certainly over.
We are not in the days of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. These days many employers are providing perks to employees that some of us consider distractions from what they are there for – work. In California, the companies that abuse the labor laws are the entertainment companies (shocking). Yet, the California Legislature continues to attempt to correct every perceived wrong and another plant closes (Heinz) and jobs are moved to another state. California moves further toward a segregated society of haves and have-nots.
The political class still have their jobs.
I’ll just leave this here:
I don’t get ANY sick leave with my job. If I’m sick, I either lose pay or have to take a vacation day. I get ONE ‘personal day’ each year. One.
We stifle job creation, we fund people to stay without work, we print money at zero interest rates for corporations to engage in financial engineering instead of manufacturing, we create liability laws so onerous, and yet we are surprised when jobs are sent overseas
Uh...what's he talking about? Seen the feedlots in Chino manned entirely by illegals who think torture is titillation?
California work rules are a fraud that no one pays attention to in the manual labor businesses. They just hire illegals to do an end run around the rubes who actually pay attention to the rules.
Let me guess, are you self employed?
Mexifornia is a test bed for what is to come for the rest of the country. I would not at all be surprised if the drought and lack of rain is being engineered as well in order to impose strict regulations upon the people. Think ‘Agenda 21’.
Can’t wait to get out of this dead state.
One wonders if the demographers will ever notice that it's the productive, hard-working, tax-paying and often business-owning folks that are abandoning Cali for "red" states, as California becomes too toxic for long-time residents.
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They don’t care. They’re too stupid. Unfortunately, I am relocating to another blue state, but at least I’ll have water.
California isn’t “dying.” It’s being deliberately, consciously, knowingly murdered by the Left. They know what they are doing, they want to do it, and they are doing it. The rich want California for themselves. So, they’re taking it. Just like Hillary intends to take the country for herself. Whether anyone realizes what they are doing is utterly irrelevant to these monsters.
I solved a big part of the problem by stopping Christmas and Easter as paid holidays. I don’t want to insult my employees with observances of such obvious infractions of church/state rule.No need to sing my praises, we all should do what we can to weed out the influence of such politically incorrect institutions.
I worked for a large, well known corporation, in Anaheim. After 11 years, in 2001, I accepted a severance package, and the work I did was sent to Orlando. I caught on with a communications company in the area, and lasted 12 years. They let 600 of us go, my old job is in Atlanta. They even closed the warehouse, every day at 6:00am a semi rolls in from Arizona, filled with that day’s worth of needed equipment, because it is cheaper than maintaining a facility in Orange County. Notice a pattern, here ?
“The only businesses that seem to be impervious are located in Silicon Valley or the new Silicon Beach (Santa Monica).”
Yes and no. Austin is doing VERY WELL and is starting to pull people (and jobs) out of Silicone Valley. Anyone that can carry over their California salary gets an immediate 10% RAISE here in Texas, just due to the income tax. Other expenses (taxes) are pretty much optional. Don’t want to pay much in property tax, get a cheap house/apartment. Cars are cheap to register and the value of the car doesn’t affect the cost to register.
I’m not hot about the politics of Austin, as it’s 90% Democrat...but even techies have a LIMIT as to how much ABUSE they can take...and California has crossed that line for them.
Those that take sick time off again and again will find themselves fired for “other” reasons.
I had a co-worker who went several years taking ‘sick days” of 1 to 2 days a month, usually on a friday or monday. When he was fired by a new manager he still had 240/hrs of vacation time left (30 days). He had worked at the company for 24 years and lost a $50k+ job just so he could goof off for a day because he felt like it. He was unemployed for 16 months afterward and is now working at a lower salary.
You get a whole day off each YEAR?
You must not raise livestock for a living!
Grin.
“but at least I’ll have water.”
I moved from CA to another (northern) blue state and like posting images of our abundant water to Facebook. It helps aliviate the pain of all the beautiful weather posts I receive during the winter.
I am constantly comparing regulations trying to decide which state is more restrictive.
Just part time on the livestock. Hoping for full time when I ‘retire!’ At a minimum, I AM going to have my own milk cow, come h#ll or high water! :)
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