Category Archives: HR Services

Why You Should Be Labor Law Complaint

To ensure smooth business operations, all businesses must comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This includes human resources, sexual harassment training, and ERISA. And labor law is no exception.

Proper labor law poster compliance is required by law. If your business has at least one paid employee, you are required to post city, county, state and federal labor law notices. Failure to post up-to-date labor law notices can result in lawsuits or hefty fines of up to $33,486.

You may be asking, why is labor law compliance so important for your business? The answer is three-fold.

Labor law posters are critical for an employer.

As an employer, making sure labor law posters are properly displayed in a common area and up to date are easy preventative measures. Proper posting can strengthen your legal defense, especially in the event of a lawsuit or employee dispute. In addition, labor law compliance can come to your aid when there is an accident in the workplace, an unannounced Occupational Safety and Health Administration audit, or a Labor Board/ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission inquiry.

Lawsuits and employee disputes are on the rise.

Since the #MeToo movement, lawsuits and disputes, especially surrounding workplace harassment, are on the rise. Discrimination, gender equity, wages, and working conditions are other popular topics in these proceedings. Again, communicating current employee laws and rights can strengthen your legal defense in the long run.

Federal budget for the enforcement of employment laws has been increased to $13.2 Billion.

An increase in budget is a sign of higher regulations, which come in the form of higher OSHA fines and more surprise workplace visits, citations, and labor law poster audits. To avoid fines and cruise through all visits and audits, ensure best practice and properly display your up to date labor law posters in a visible spot where all employees can access it.

Keep your business compliant with the help of HRIS platforms, such as CorpStrat. CorpStrat provides a fully comprehensive, year-round labor law posting solution that includes:

Laminated, up-to-date, attorney-approved All-In-One State and Federal Labor Law Posters.
QR codes and posting legends for simple compliance tracking.
Access to any city and county labor law notices that are required for your business location.
Automatic updates every time changes occur in city, county, state, or federal posting requirements.
A $25,000 Fine Guarantee.

Let’s talk about your poster compliance needs. Contact CorpStrat to learn more about our labor law poster solutions.

Sexual Harassment Training Compliance may be delayed, but it’s NOT what you think

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As we know, California has enacted a series of laws that strengthen the state’s protections against workplace harassment. The deadline for sexual harassment training compliance has been updated to January 1, 2021, a year later than the initial date of January 1, 2020.

Even though companies have an extra year to fully comply with these new harassment laws, we recommend to not delay training. Companies must still provide training to all new employees within the first 6 months of hire. So, in order to ensure best practice, companies need to start implementing them as soon as possible.

We advise companies to use a learning platform, like CorpStrat, to keep employers on track and help with compliance. Employers will be able to easily upload their roster, push out trainings, track progress and secure completion certifications. With a platform, companies will be able to get started on compliance right away. Again, it is important to know that delaying is not best practice.

To recap, here are the new California laws that companies must implement:

Require employers with five or more employees in the state to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees;
Expand and clarify employer liability for workplace harassment; and
Prohibit employers from entering certain agreements related to sexual harassment and other unlawful acts in the workplace.

All California employers should become familiar with the new laws. Those with five or more employees should review the new training requirements and ensure that each of their employees receives the required training by the end of 2020.

Managers must complete 2 hours
Employees must complete 1 hour

The appropriate training must be completed by each employee within six months of assuming his or her job. Each employee must receive the appropriate training once every two years.

The deadline for initial compliance with these requirements is now January 1, 2021.

Contact CorpStrat to learn more about our learning platform ASAP! Don’t delay.

The Gig Economy and California Bill AB 5: What You Need to Know

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A California bill signals a ‘brand new ball game’ for gig economy businesses, such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Postmates.

With the California Legislature passing a bill expected to make the gig economy workforce more expensive in California, the governor has also signed the bill this month, meaning workers will soon face new limitations within their independent contractors.

The legislature passed Assembly Bill (AB) 5, a bill that largely codifies the 2018 Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Los Angeles County Superior Court decision. That decision made it harder to justify classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Dynamex and the new bill are putting major stress on businesses such as ride-share giants Uber and Lyft since they along with other gig economy entities rely on the independent contractor model, which is a far less expensive way to staff their businesses than hiring employees who are eligible to form unions, collect benefits, and be covered under an array of state and federal laws.

Employers need to take a careful look.

The passage of AB 5 “creates a brand-new ball game” related to independent contractors. Once it’s finalized, employers will have to look carefully at how the new statute will affect their workforce.

Almost every workforce in the state will be affected in some way.

The new statute affects more than just wage and hour issues. Since it broadens the definition of an employee, many more workers will come under laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other anti-discrimination laws as well as the National Labor Relations Act. Also, the state’s sexual harassment training requirements must be done for those classified as employees under the new statute.

Benefits – yes, companies with 50 and up must “offer” and provide “affordable” healthcare benefits under the ACA. This, combined with the added payroll taxes and workers compensation coverages could be a colossal blow to businesses.

Both the federal and state governments have focused on misclassification of employees as independent contractors for the past decade, and California law includes a penalty for misclassification in addition to other potential liability.

For example, a California employer faces liability for misclassification in addition to liability for not paying for workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance on workers determined to be employees.

The governor signed the bill as of September 13, 2019. Even after the bill is signed, the issue may not be over since Uber and Lyft have put resources behind a possible ballot initiative to allow them to keep their independent contractor model.

CorpStrat provides companies with tools to attract, reward and retain their staff, through delivery and council on benefits, insurance, payroll, technology, and HR services. Contact the CorpStrat offices today to learn more!

Sexual Harassment Training Updates

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Last month we presented you with an overview of the new California laws around sexual harassment in the workplace. We are back today with an update on the deadline of when workplaces are required to comply.

Instead of January 1, 2020, the deadline for initial compliance for the below requirements is now January 1, 2021. Although companies now have an extra year to fully comply with these new harassment laws, we recommend starting to implement them as soon as possible, for best practices. It is also important to keep in mind that all companies must complete the training with new hires within the first 6 months of hire.

As a refresher, California has recently enacted a series of laws that strengthen the state’s protections against workplace harassment. The new laws are as follows:

✔️ Require employers with five or more employees in the state to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees;

✔️ Expand and clarify employer liability for workplace harassment; and

✔️ Prohibit employers from entering certain agreements related to sexual harassment and other unlawful acts in the workplace.

✔️ Managers must complete 2-hours – employees 1-hour.

The appropriate training must be completed by each employee within six months of assuming his or her job. Each employee must receive the appropriate training once every two years.

The deadline for initial compliance with these requirements is now January 1, 2021.

CorpStrat has a learning platform that can help employers easily comply for a nominal expense. With our platform, you can easily upload your roster, push out trainings, track progress and secure completion certifications.

Contact us to learn more ASAP! Don’t delay.

How We Helped a Cannabis Start-Up Find Ease in Payroll and Become HR Compliant

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Our Client

7Points is a cannabis cultivating company in Woodlake, California. They seek to offer their customers a continuously unique and pleasurable experience with their product.

Their Challenge

7Points is a start-up looking to grow quickly and needed systems and processes that were smooth, compliant and reliable from the start. They turned to CorpStrat for their Payroll and HR needs and received just what they were looking for.

Recommendation + Results

Instead of paper timesheets, 7Points employees are now using biometric timeclocks that sync directly into payroll. They are now able to avoid any timekeeping discrepancies and have saved endless time now that their hours are no longer manually entered.

In addition, 7Points turned to CorpStrat HR to make sure they were in compliance with all their HR-related needs. The first item on the agenda was the NEW California State required Sexual Harassment Training for all employees. 7Points can now have confidence in their policies and procedures when it comes to employees who are consistently compliant with State and Federal laws.

Cannabis-related companies have traditionally had a difficult time establishing banking and payroll practices. Contact the team at CorpStrat to help your company deploy best practices in benefits, compliance, learning, HR and technology.