Conn Maciel Carey - HospitalityLawyer.com®

Court Stresses the Need for a Business to Provide an Accessibility Statement on its Website

by Jordan Schwartz in Food & Beverage, Legal, Lodging, Technology. Posted January 23, 2020

In 2018 and 2019, there were approximately 5,000 federal lawsuits filed against hotels, restaurants, stores, and other places of public accommodation alleging that their websites violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). In all likelihood this number of lawsuits will increase in 2020 now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to ...

California Employers Are Not Required To Reimburse Restaurant Workers For The Cost Of Slip-Resistant Shoes Under Labor Code Section 2802

by Megan Shaked in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted October 19, 2019

A recent California Court of Appeal decision, Townley v. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc., has further defined the scope of reimbursable business expenses under California Labor Code section 2802, this time in the context of slip-resistant shoes for restaurant workers. A former server filed an action under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA), ...

On the Basis of Personal Appearance

by Beeta Lashkari in Human Resources, Legal. Posted August 15, 2019

As you know, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) is one of the principal federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, and sex (including gender and pregnancy). Other federal statutes that prohibit employment discrimination include Title I and Title V ...

Repeat Offenders: Commonly Cited OSHA Standards in the Hospitality Industry & How to Avoid Them

by Aaron Gelb in Insurance & Loss Prevention, Risk Management. Posted June 29, 2019

The law has always been clear that there is no statutory limitation on the length of time that a prior OSHA citation may serve as the basis for a Repeat violation. OSHA historically looked back only three years for past violations, but the Obama Administration extended it to five years. However, the look back period ...

Tips, Service Charges, and Automatic Gratuities Continue to Cause Problems for Employers

by Jordan Schwartz in Human Resources, Legal. Posted November 22, 2018

Hospitality employers nationwide continue to be hit with class action lawsuits alleging failure to properly pay/distribute tips, as well as failure to correctly characterize service charges and automatic gratuities. These lawsuits have the potential to result in verdicts or settlement amounts more costly than virtually any other employment-related matter. As a result, it is important to ...

Lasting Effects of the #MeToo Movement

by Beeta Lashkari in Human Resources, Legal. Posted November 13, 2018

It has been about a year since the #MeToo movement went viral, spreading greater awareness about sexual misconduct and harassment, and, more generally, the role of women, in the workplace. So, where are we now, and has anything changed? Was it just an awareness movement? Or, have things actually started to shift in the legal ...

Court Finds that Restaurant Complied with California Law by Requiring Employees Purchasing Discounted Meals to Eat their Meals on Premises

by Megan Shaked in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted August 28, 2018

In California, generally an employer may not employ a non-exempt employee for a work period of more than five hours per day without providing the employee with a meal period that may be taken off the premises. Yet, in the restaurant industry employers often provide employees free or discounted meals to be eaten on the ...

Mitigating Risk for Rogue Employee Speech

by Daniel Deacon in Human Resources, Insurance & Loss Prevention, Legal, Risk Management. Posted August 9, 2018

Generally, employers can be held vicariously liable for the tortious conduct of an employee committed within the scope of his or her employment. This often arises in the context of negligence cases, such as automobile and workplace accidents. However, employers can also be held liable for defamatory statements made by their employees when those statements ...

New Wave of ADA Website Lawsuits

by Jordan Schwartz in Insurance & Loss Prevention, Legal, Lodging, Technology. Posted June 5, 2018

Recently, there have been a slew of lawsuits filed across the country alleging that owners and operators of hotels and other places of lodging are using websites that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). These lawsuits are different than the wave of lawsuits and demand letters sent to so many hotels and other places ...

Cal/OSHA Compels Hospitality Employers to Clean Up Their Act, Ergonomically Speaking

by Conn Maciel Carey in Human Resources, Legal, Lodging. Posted May 22, 2018

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the single most common type of work-related injury, but federal OSHA has struggled for decades to develop a coherent regulatory and/or enforcement strategy to address the hazards that cause these ergonomic injuries. Where federal OSHA fell short, the State of California has picked up the slack, with Cal-OSHA recently finalizing a ...

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