Laura Maechtlen Quoted in CIO.COM and Insurance Journal
"Oracle Overtime Case Spells Trouble for California Tech Companies" and "Nonresident Workers in California Are Subject to California Overtime"

Seyfarth Shaw San Francisco partner Laura Maechtlen was extensively quoted in two articles discussing a recent California Supreme Court decision, Sullivan v. Oracle on July 11. Both CIO.com and Insurance Journal quoted Laura extensively.

According to Laura, the ruling "will have significant implications for all California-based employers with employees who are residents of other states, but who perform work in California."

She said, "While the decision is limited to California-based employers, because the overtime provision of the labor code could have been found to apply to nonresident employees, employers subject to the decision could face a slew of additional claims by nonresident employees claiming that they were improperly classified as exempt and/or owed overtime for work performed in California."

"While the ruling only applies to overtime eligible employees who are residents of Colorado and Arizona, Laura said, "It may have far-reaching implications for employees and employers across the U.S., especially other California-based tech companies."

"We think that plaintiffs and employees in the future may try to expand the holding in a couple of different ways," she added. "If California law is more favorable than the overtime law in their home state, non-exempt employees of California-based companies living in other states [aside from Colorado and Arizona], and who spend time working in California may file suit to see if they can obtain California's overtime wages for days or weeks worked in California."

"It's a little bit of an open question as to how this decision will be used to challenge pay practices in the future," Laura continued. "It's going to be up to each company to decide what they need to do in response to it. What employers should be doing is taking a look at who they have travelling [to California], the amount of time they spend there, and if it will be a burden for them to apply California's wage and hour laws to them when they're working there."