In 1994, the California legislature enacted Civil Code section 51.9 to address the relationship between providers of professional services and their clients. The statute sets out a non-exclusive list of such providers, which includes physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, attorneys, real estate agents, accountants, bankers, building contractors, executors, trustees, landlords, and teacher;…
Under California law, to be actionable/unlawful the harassment at workplace must be sufficiently “severe and pervasive.” This means that, generally isolated comments and incidents, unless egregious, do not rise to the level of sexual harassment as defined by FEHA (California Fair Employment and Housing Act). But, what about staring? Can…
Most employers, especially larger companies include detailed provisions on their anti-harassment at workplace policy. These policies generally serve several purposes. First, the employers are required to implement various harassment training and prevention procedures at workplace. Secondly, these policies are designed to provide an opportunity for employee to address and eliminate…
It is a common tactic for an employer to defend an employee’s claims of sexual harassment at workplace by arguing that because the conduct in question towards the victim wasn’t “sexual enough,” she cannot state a valid claim for sexual harassment. This is exactly what happened in Birschtein v. New…
The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) defines “harassment” as: – verbal harassment, such as epithets, derogatory comments or slurs (or repeated sexual comments and jokes or prying into one’s personal affairs); – physical harassment, such as unwanted touching, rubbing against someone, assault and physical interference with movement or…
It is common for an employee who is subjected to discriminatory conduct or harassment at workplace in California to be afraid to complain about the harasser to his superiors for fear of retaliation and losing a job. However, an aggrieved employee simply has nothing to gain by keeping quiet. In…
Sexual orientation discrimination involves treating an employee differently because of his or her sexual orientation (being gay, lesbian, or bisexual). In California, homosexual employees are protected by the same laws that protect all other workers against sexual harassment. That is, it is unlawful to harass or discriminate against employees because…
An individual harasser at workplace in California, whether he / she is a co-workers or a supervisor, may be personally liable for sexual harassment under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). This means that the employee who is a victim of sexual (or other) harassment, may be able to…
There are various, although equally despicable and unlawful kinds of sexual harassment that employees may be subjected to at workplace. One type of sexual harassment may take the form of an economic “quid quo pro” where a supervisor’s requests for sexual favors are linked to the grant or denial of…
Physical violence at workplace is more common than we would like to believe. Recently, a client approached me describing the outrageous conduct of his former employer – while being notified of his termination, his employer, during a mild verbal confrontation violently pushed him against a furniture store in his office,…