EEOC Sues California Grocery Store for Disability Discrimination On September 28, 2018 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced it has filed a law suit against Central California grocery store, PAQ, Inc. dba Rancho San Miguel Market for alleged violations of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The agency contends that in 2016, a […]
Compton School District Failed to Accommodate Disabled Teacher The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers with five or more on payroll to engage in an “interactive process” with a worker requesting accommodation of a disability. The employer must have timely, good faith and ongoing discussions to explore if and how to reasonably […]
“Non-binary” will Join “He” and “She” in California California law prohibits discrimination against employees for their membership in any protected class. This includes gender identity, defined as “each person’s internal understanding of their gender, or the perception of a person’s gender identity, which may include male, female, a combination of male and female, neither male […]
HELPING THE HAUNTED – California Employers Must Accommodate Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault or Stalking California Labor Code section 230 prohibits all employers from terminating, discriminating or retaliating against employee victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking for taking time off for related court appearances. Private employers with 25 or more on payroll must […]
As we have described in California’s Expanded Immigration-Related Protections and California Extends Protections for Whistleblowing Employees, several California laws protect employees, regardless of undocumented status, from actual or threatened retaliation for demanding workplace rights. These state protections of immigrant workers, some of the strongest nationwide, would seem at odds with the federal law (Title 8, […]
Jerks, Introverts and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Weaving v. City of Hillsboro The ability of employers to follow the law – and of judges to enforce it – depends on clearly defined standards of responsibility and conduct. Vaguely or otherwise poorly stated rules can lead to inconsistent outcomes in very similar factual situations. This […]
An Employer’s Lesson In Thorough Documentation In Los Angeles County, it is not uncommon to see 100 lawsuits filed weekly against employers for alleged unlawful discrimination or retaliation, often both in the same complaint. One could say that unless a business knows and applies the important basics in preventing such expensive and time-consuming claims, it […]
U.S. Supreme Court Decision Slims Down Super-Sized Supervisor Definition Under federal and California law, employer liability for workplace harassment can depend entirely on the legal definition of a “supervisor.” The U.S. Supreme Court has recently clarified that definition under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Vance v. Ball State University (June […]
Harassment in the Workplace is Illegal Prevention is The Only Viable Solution Current regulations tighten trainer qualifications and impose heightened interactivity requirements, including questions that assess learning, skill-building activities and numerous hypothetical scenarios about harassment with follow-up discussion questions. We are offering an updated in-house, two-plus hour seminar, at your location, that will fulfill these […]
What California Employers Must Pay Upon Termination A worker recently asked whether his now-former employer should have included sick time and vacation time in his final paycheck. He wrote: “I’m no longer working for [the employer] and I thought I was going to get my paid time off with my last check such as … […]