The use of the term "all natural" appears widely on food labels on the super market shelves in California and nationwide. The term, however, is elusive to define and has been the center piece of numerous class action lawsuits for consumer fraud over the past several years. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration embarked on a process trying to define the term. It has to date received about 7,600 comments from consumers, companies and other interested entities.
What The OT Expansion Rule Means for Employees
Back in 2014, President Obama had directed Department of Labor ("DOL") Secretary, Thomas Perez, to streamline and modernize minimum wage and OT exemptions. As a result of this direction, the DOL has finalized an OT expansion rule. Effective December 1, 2016, federal OT protections and regulations will expand to cover over 4 million people. What does this mean in a nutshell? That many more people will become eligible for OT and ultimately OT pay under federal labor laws.
For-profit schools may contract against consumer fraud claims
There has been a steady body of class action litigation in California and other states against certain types of colleges and private schools that offer up arguably inferior programs and at the same time take in millions or billions in federal financial aid. A few nationwide educational chains may fall into this category. The problem recently for students trying to be compensated for losses incurred through the educational form of consumer fraud is that they find that they have signed agreements restricting them to a form of arbitration as their sole remedy.
Employer imposing Scientology sued for employment discrimination
Employment discrimination can take the form of religious discrimination in some cases. Religious discrimination is a prohibited employment practice under California law and federal law. A religious discrimination claim is handled similar to other cases of employment discrimination, i.e., by the filing of a claim initially with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the state agency that handles such claims.
