Recently, one of my clients referred to me his former colleague. After having a long conversation with him, it became clear to me that he was a victim of blatant disability discrimination and retaliation for filing a workers compensation claim and for complaining about harassment because of his medical condition…
For a while I could not understand why so many employers violate basic overtime laws. After all, these laws are not rocket science, and plenty of resources are available for employer to understand and make sure that they comply with the rules of the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement when…
Employers who terminate employees routinely fight the award of unemployment benefits if they feel that the employee was terminated for cause or for misconduct and should not receive unemployment compensation, which results in increasing the premium that the employer has to pay toward that insurance reserve with the State. Fighting…
The leading opinion on the issue of employers’ obligation to remedy workplace sexual harassment of a victim by his co-workers, is the ninth circuit case Ellison v. Brady (1991). In that case, the court carefully analyzed the approach that a number of other courts take toward determining whether the employer…
An employee who feels harassed, discriminated or otherwise treated unfairly at his workplace may learn the term “constructive discharge” from his co-workers or from doing his own research, and will assume that quitting a job where he feels harassed or stressed out will automatically create a constructive discharge claim, entitling…
One of the challenging in proving the workplace retaliation claim against an employee is showing a nexus – a connection between the employee’s protected activity and the adverse employment action taken by the employer against the same employee. The employer will almost always deny retaliation and will always argue that…
On February 23, 2004, the City of San Francisco established a minimum hourly wage for the employees pursuant to Administrative Code section 12R (the Minimum Wage Ordinance or MWO). Under MWO section 12R.4, San Francisco employers shall pay to employees no less than the minimum wage for each hour worked…
The California courts have long recognized that fact that direct evidence of discrimination or retaliation at workplace is rarely available. Employers whose mindset and who actions are discriminatory will rarely admit it to other or to themselves and will of course almost never openly tell an employee: “I am terminating…
Under California Labor Code and a number of orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, almost all employees (with few exceptions), who work for over 5 hours are entitled to a meal break of at least 30 minutes. The only way the employer may be relieved from this obligation is that…
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;…