By now, it is a familiar scenario: A call to a customer support, order, or reservations line is made and a voice announces that the call may be recorded. The idea is simple: Alert the caller that if they continue the conversation, their words -- and the potentially sensitive information they may divulge -- won't simply disappear into the ether. A thoughtful gesture? Sure. But in California, it is also the law. Unfortunately, it is a law that isn't always followed. The result is a worrisome … [Read more...]

California's Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has cited a German multinational company following the death of an Antioch man at a manufacturing plant in Bay Point. Henkel Corporation is now facing $200,825 in fines for multiple serious and willful violations. The 26-year-old Antioch man was hired as a temporary worker by a staffing agency, HR Comp. While on the job he was pulled into an unguarded mixer shaft, causing him to become stuck and sustain fatal … [Read more...]

No one is safe from the grip of forced arbitration-even if the named arbitration forum is no longer operational, as a Virginia housekeeper recently found out. In the case of Schuiling v. Harris, a live-in housekeeper signed an arbitration agreement, which was originally prepared for the employer's auto business, specifying the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) as the arbitrator if any disputes between them occurred. "The agreement was solely for arbitration purposes, as it did not state anything … [Read more...]