Best Wrongful Termination Attorneys in Dallas, TX

California, a state known to be “employee friendly”, has a statute in its labor code that has been interpreted by courts in a way that has helped employees in unexpected ways. In a 2014 California case Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Serv., Inc., the Second District Court of Appeal reversed an order denying class certification and held, “If an employee is required to make work-related calls on a personal cell phone, then he or she is incurring an expense for purposes of section 2802.” Further, the court set the standard of determining whether personal cell phone use should be compensated by the employer by stating, “To show liability under section 2802, an employee need only show that he or she was required to use a personal cell phone to make work-related calls, and he or she was not reimbursed.” This case is a great start in understanding the work-life of the modern-day employee. For example, emails alone can be read and responded to on the go because smart phones have made it much easier to read and reply to emails instead of employees waiting to get to their computers to do so. Bottom line is employees need to evaluate their remote work arrangements. Many employers may need to adopt new or revised expense reimbursement policies. It’s worth the attention of employers across the nation to consider the lasting changes COVID-19 may have on employment law. California may have possibly set a new standard for employee reimbursement policies in the near future.