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Vida Thomas

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Vida Thomas has practiced employment law for more than 20 years. She advises employers regarding all aspects of employment law and human resources management, serves as an expert witness in state and federal employment lawsuits, and mediates litigation and non-litigation matters. Vida assists parties and attorneys in resolving employment claims, including but not limited to: harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims; wrongful termination claims; failure to accommodate and statutory leave violations; whistleblowing claims; wage and hour violations; invasion of privacy claims; and other statutory, tort and contract claims.

Vida also maintains a substantial workplace investigations practice, conducting impartial investigations into allegations of employee misconduct for private and public employers. She routinely conducts sexual harassment prevention training (including AB1825 compliance training) for state agencies and private companies and has advised clients and conducted dozens of seminars on the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, employee drug testing and sexual harassment investigations.

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On August 30, 2019, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 778, extending for one year the deadline for providing harassment prevention training to employees.  California employers now have until January 1, 2021 to provide the sexual harassment prevention training mandated by SB 1343, which took effect on January 1, 2019.

SB 1343 requires an…

Effective January 1, 2019, employers that employ five or more employees in California must provide one hour of harassment and abusive conduct prevention training to all nonsupervisory employees, and two hours of such training to supervisory employees. This mandatory training must be provided by January 1, 2020, and once every two years thereafter.

Under…

A recent California Court of Appeal decision upheld the state’s complex rules for compensating piece-rate employees.  In Nisei Farmers League v. California Labor & Workforce Dev. Agency, 2019 Cal.App. LEXIS 10 (Cal.Ct.App. Jan. 4, 2019), the Court held that the Labor Code’s requirement that piece-rate employees be separately compensated for “nonproductive time” was not…

Continuing its aggressive enforcement of California wage and hour laws, the Labor Commission issued wage theft citations of $1.9 million to Fullerton Pacific Interiors, Inc. for failing to pay minimum wage and overtime and failing to provide rest periods to 472 workers on 26 construction projects throughout Southern California.

Fullerton Pacific Interiors provided drywall work…

On July 5, 2018, a federal judge in the Eastern District of California granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) request to temporarily prevent the state of California from enforcing key provisions of AB 450, one of three “sanctuary” laws that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on October 5, 2017, and which took effect on January 1, 2018.  AB 450, known as the Immigration Worker Protection Act, provides that California employers:

  • May not allow federal immigration officials to access the employer’s nonpublic work areas unless the officials have a judicial warrant;
  • May not allow federal immigration officials to access employee records without a subpoena or judicial warrant;
  • Must provide notice to its employees before and after the federal government inspects the employer’s I-9 forms; and
  • May not re-verify an employee’s lawful work authorization status unless required to do so by federal law.

Continue Reading California Federal Court Suspends Enforcement of Certain Provisions in California’s Sanctuary Laws