A
proposal from California Democrats to institute a statewide four-day workweek
for hourly employees has been shelved, according to a recent Wall
Street Journal report.
Evan
Low, the Democratic state assembly member who co-wrote the proposed legislation,
said the bill failed to advance after the California State Assembly’s Labor and
Employment Committee declined to set it for a policy hearing, effectively ending
the bill’s chances of progressing in the current legislative session.
According
to the WSJ, the proposal would have required private-sector employers
with more than 500 employees to pay hourly workers overtime after logging more
than 32 hours a week. California Democrats introduced the bill earlier this
year after a number of recent corporate experiments with a four-day workweek.
Lawmakers
decided against advancing the bill, given there was too little time to fully
study its implications before taking the next legislative step, Low said.
Still,
he said he wasn’t giving up on legislating a four-day workweek. Low told WSJ
he plans to hold an informational hearing with stakeholders to better
understand what changes would need to be made to the bill to give it a better
shot of advancing.
LinkedIn Agrees to Pay $1.8 Million to Women Over Discrimination Claims
As
reported by the New
York Times, LinkedIn has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department
of Labor to pay $1.8 million to female employees who the agency said received
far less compensation than their male colleagues from 2015 to 2017.
According
to a statement released by the agency, LinkedIn denied equal pay to 686 women working
in its San Francisco office and at its headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. The
women worked in engineering, marketing and product roles.
During
a routine evaluation, the agency found that the women in question had been paid
“at a statistically significant lower rate” than their male counterparts even
after taking “legitimate explanatory factors” into account, according to the
conciliation agreement between LinkedIn and the Labor Department.
In
a statement,
LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, denied that it discriminated against
certain employees.
“While
we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government’s
claim,” the statement said.
The
settlement includes around $1.75 million in back pay and more than $50,000 in
interest to be paid to the women, according to the conciliation agreement.
As
part of the settlement, LinkedIn also agreed to send the agency reports over
the next three years as it evaluates its compensation policies and makes salary
adjustments, the Labor Department said. The company agreed to run an employee
training program on “nondiscrimination obligations.”
Tesla Announces It Will Cover Travel Costs for Workers Seeking Abortions
Tesla
has announced that it will start covering travel costs for employees seeking
out-of-state abortions, reported the Associated
Press.
The
company said in its 2021 “Impact Report,”
released May 6, that it expanded its Safety Net program and health insurance
offerings last year to include “travel and lodging support for those who may
need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state.”
The
car maker officially moved its corporate headquarters last year from Silicon
Valley to Texas, which passed a law banning abortions at roughly six weeks of
pregnancy.
Tesla
joins a growing list of companies offering workers help with abortion care as states
have introduced new restrictions. Amazon also recently
announced it would cover its U.S. employees’ expenses when they travel to
access non-threatening medical procedures, including abortions.
Carvana to Lay Off 2,500 Employees
According
to Reuters,
Carvana announced it would lay off about 2,500 employees, or 12% of its
workforce, as the online used-car retailer works to get back to profitability
weeks after it reported dismal results.
Carvana has missed expectations for earnings in the last three quarters as expenses soared and demand for used cars slipped due to sky high prices and inventory shortages, Reuters reported.
Tempe,
Arizona-based Carvana had more than 21,000 full-time and part-time employees at
the end of Dec. 31, as per its latest annual filing.
On
May 10, Carvana said that all impacted team members, primarily in operational
groups, would receive four weeks of pay and an additional week for every year
that they have been with the company.
The company also said that its executive team would forego their salaries for the remainder of the year.
