Recently, the Fourth District Court has published its decision in Wills v. Superior Court – a very important opinion on workplace mental disabilities rights at workplace. That case addressed a not uncommon situation, where an employee who has been diagnosed with mental disorder, such as bi-polar disorder, has been found…
Some employers assume that just because their employee is on temporary but total disability, i.e. he is completely incapable of performing his job duties for a limited period of time, this means that the employee is not qualified to accommodations under ADA or FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act) and…
Requesting a reasonable accommodation to your disability is an important step to protecting your rights at workplace. Whether your disability or medical condition has developed over time (such as carpal tunnel syndrome) or resulted from an industrial accident, it’s important to keep several important things in mind to avoid the…
One of the hallmarks and great advantages of California disability laws, which encompasses employers’ obligation to engage in interactive process to find reasonable accommodations to qualifying employees with a disability or a medical condition, is its flexibility. Generally, the employer must consider various solutions to accommodating an employee and be…
Having been regularly representing registered nurses, nursing assistants and medical assistants who work for major hospitals and other healthcare facilities in California, including such groups as Kaiser, Stanford Hospitals, and Sutter Health, I see the same patter of work related injuries over and over. A nurse or an assistant is…
It is not uncommon for a California employer to justify its termination of the disabled worker and it’s failure to engage in interactive process to find reasonable accommodations as require by law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, by arguing that because the didn’t owe the duty to engage…
The California Labor Code section 132(a) is yet another device prohibition discrimination against injured workers (in addition to California Fair Employment and Housing Act or “FEHA”). This section prohibits employer discrimination against an employee based on: * Applying or intending to apply for workers’ compensation benefits; or * Receiving a…
Both ADA (Americans with Disabilities act) and its California counterpart – FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act) cover disabled employees as well as employees whom the employer has regarded or treated as having had any physical or mental disability or medical condition that makes achievement of a major life activity…
FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act) prohibits disability discrimination and pregnancy based discrimination in California. To prove a wrongful termination claim based on pregnancy discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodations to a pregnant employee at workplace, first she has to prove that her condition constitutes disability within the meaning…
Two critical aspects of proving (discriminatory) workplace retaliation for filing a workers compensation claim or engaging in other protected activity are: (1) proving causal relationship between the filing of the the workers compensation claim (or engaging in other protected activity) and the discriminatory actions by the employer; and (2) proving…