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On, April 5, 2022 the Napa County Board of Supervisors adopted a new “Micro-winery Ordinance”, allowing Napa Valley winegrape growers to produce and sell wine at their family farms. The Ordinance will go into effect May 5, 2022. The Ordinance will amend the Napa County Code to allow farmers to obtain a use permit for […]
Last week was an exciting week for producers and consumers of California Central Coast wine. On Wednesday, March 9, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (the “TTB”) published a final rule establishing a new “San Luis Obispo Coast,” or “SLO Coast,” American Viticultural Area (“AVA”). The SLO Coast AVA (identified in orange below) […]
On February 9, 2022, Governor Newsom signed the new COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law (SB-114), which is retroactive to January 1, 2022 and extends through September 30, 2022. Similar to the previous law that provided COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave and expired last year, the new COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law requires employers […]
This week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed three bills that expand certain winery off-site tasting room privileges and grant alcohol beverage manufacturers the right to advertise and promote charitable donations in connection with the sale of alcohol. The laws will become effective on January 1, 2022. We have summarized the new bills and how they amend […]
State and Federal COVID-19 Leave Laws Are Set to Expire on September 30, 2021 As of the date of this article, both the federal and the California COVID-19 leave laws are set to expire on September 30, 2021 and it does not appear that either the State or Federal legislatures will be extending these provisions. […]
On July 15, 2021, the California Supreme Court decided in Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, LLC that employers must pay premium payments to employees for missed meal, rest, and recovery breaks at the employee’s “regular rate of pay” instead of the employee’s base hourly rate, as many employers were doing. The ruling is retroactive, and […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges and changes in the workplace, with one of the biggest changes being the increase in remote work for employees. As the economy reopens this year, employers are now able to bring employees safely back to the workplace. However, many employers are also exploring flexible work arrangements that allow […]
On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a California regulation allowing union organizers to enter an agricultural employer’s property is unconstitutional. The regulation, on the books since the mid-1970s, requires farms to permit unions to speak with and recruit farmworkers in the hour before and after work and an hour during lunchtime for […]
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control announced today end dates for the temporary relief measures announced in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Depending on the specific regulatory relief in question, the relief granted by ABC, and the expanded privileges granted to many licensees during Covid, will come to an end on either […]
The proliferation of social media creates new and difficult situations for employers. Many employers wonder to what extent they can regulate their employee’s social media activities or legally take an employment action based on an employee’s off-duty conduct. For better or worse, most of us carry smart phones with the capacity to text, email, comment, […]