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Judge rules in favor of LAPD Union in COVID testing cost dispute
Los Angeles Jul 21, 2022
| Photo courtesy of Jeff Costlow/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
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A judge has ruled in favor of the union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers, which sued the city over its requirement that employees unvaccinated against the coronavirus pay for their own COVID-19 testing.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League maintained the requirement violated the state Labor Code. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rupert A. Byrdsong issued his ruling after a brief jury trial on July 13.
The union’s lawsuit, filed last Oct. 19, challenged the city’s demand that unvaccinated employees to pay for their COVID tests, at $65 per test, twice a week.
The state Labor Code mandates that employers compensate employees for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the worker “in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer,” according to the union’s court papers.
In their court papers, lawyers for the City Attorney’s Office maintained that the union could not show that the COVID-19 testing costs incurred by their members were “necessary” expenses requiring the city to compensate them under the Labor Code.
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