Employee Relations

Michael Trust founded Michael Trust Law, APC after more than 35 years in HR leadership across entertainment, healthcare, higher education, finance, banking, solar energy, and other industries, including managing approximately 35,000 disability and leave-of-absence cases. He holds the SPHR, PHRca, and SHRM-SCP credentials. The PHRca is a California-specific HR credential focused on California employment law and HR practice. According to HRCI’s published pass-rate statistics at https://www.hrci.org/pass-rates, the PHRca has the lowest pass rate of all HRCI credentials — 47% as of December 31, 2025, compared with 71–84% for HRCI’s other certifications — and only 293 candidates worldwide tested for it in 2025. That HR-systems background helps identify HR process issues early, which can shape legal analysis on both sides.

Employer – Employee Relations

Michael Trust Law, APC helps California employers manage employee relations lawfully. We guide businesses through discipline, performance management, workplace policies, and dispute resolution to reduce liability and strengthen compliance.

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California Employee Relations and HR Process — Employer Counsel

Employee relations problems rarely arrive labeled as legal claims. They usually start as a manager-employee personality conflict, a performance issue, an inconsistent discipline pattern, or a complaint HR thinks is overblown — and then, weeks or months later, they surface as a discrimination claim, a retaliation claim, a constructive discharge claim, or a wage-and-hour exposure. The pattern is consistent: process failure precedes legal exposure.

How We Approach Employee Relations Counsel

Michael Trust draws on more than 35 years of HR leadership across multiple industries, and on the SPHR, PHRca, and SHRM-SCP credentials, to advise California employers on the operational mechanics of employee relations: discipline consistency, performance documentation, investigation discipline, manager training, and the design of HR processes that produce defensible records before disputes arise. The advisory work is primarily preventive and policy-focused, rather than reactive to claims.

Handbook Review

A periodic review of the employee handbook — confirming that leave, accommodation, harassment-reporting, and discipline policies match current California law — is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce employee-relations exposure before it becomes a claim. Michael Trust Law, APC reviews existing handbooks against current California requirements, including Cal. Gov. Code §12940 (FEHA), and flags provisions that are outdated, missing, or inconsistent with how the business actually operates.

Workplace Violence Prevention

California employers are required to establish, implement, and maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan under Cal. Lab. Code §6401.9, effective July 1, 2024. Michael Trust Law, APC advises employers on building a compliant plan, including required employee training and incident-logging procedures.

When to Contact Us

If your business is facing a difficult personnel matter, or wants to audit HR practices proactively, contact Michael Trust Law, APC.

Initial contact does not create an attorney-client relationship — see Disclaimers.

Cal. Lab. Code §2802 (work expense reimbursement, when applicable to employee relations); Cal. Gov. Code §12940 (FEHA — when claims arise from employee relations breakdowns); Cal. Lab. Code §6401.9 (Workplace Violence Prevention Plan).

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Frequently Asked Questions

At least annually. A periodic review is the most cost-effective way to catch policy language that has fallen out of step with current California law before it becomes a claim. Leave, accommodation, harassment-reporting, and discipline provisions are the sections most likely to go stale, since Cal. Gov. Code §12940 (FEHA) and its regulations change often. A handbook that still reflects an outdated standard can itself become evidence in a later dispute.

Yes, in nearly every case. Cal. Lab. Code §6401.9, effective July 1, 2024, requires California employers to establish, implement, and maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, including employee training and an incident log. The plan needs to reflect the actual workplace, not a generic template.

Likely yes, to the extent those expenses are necessary and used for work. Cal. Lab. Code §2802 requires employers to indemnify employees for necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of their duties, and Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. (2014) 228 Cal.App.4th 1137 confirmed this duty extends to reasonable cell phone and remote-work expenses. A reasonable, documented reimbursement policy is the safer approach.

Consistency and timing. Discipline documentation created through the ordinary performance-management process, before any complaint or protected activity, is typically the strongest evidence in defending a later claim under FEHA (Cal. Gov. Code §12940). Documentation that first appears after a complaint is filed is far harder to rely on, even when the underlying performance issue was real.

Michael Trust Law, APC helps employers manage discipline, performance, and workplace policies lawfully. Contact Michael Trust Law, APC to discuss your situation.

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