Q: AFTER12 weeks of medical leave for a surgery, I told my employer I could not go back to work yet. One day after I was supposed to be due back at work, I was fired. HR told me the company had a strict 12-week leave policy and employees not able to return to work…

THE U.S .Women Soccer Team (“Women’s Team”) has won a record three World Cup championships, four Olympic gold medals, and many other international competitions. It is the three-time winner of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Team of the Year Award and has been Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of the Year. It is currently ranked number one in…

JACQUELINE C. worked as a caregiver for ABC Senior Care at its facility in Ventura, California.  She was assigned to care for only one patient who lives at the facility. Ginnie P. worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant/Caregiver for an ABC Senior Care facility in Los Angeles, California. She was assigned to work caring for…

SO you applied for a job. Your prospective employer may likely do a background check on you. This is true particularly for those applying in sensitive job positions. Some employers will do their investigation in-house. Others may hire an outside company to do background checks. Here are some of the information that can be found…

SIX attorneys sued their employer, Morrison & Foerster, one of the largest law firms in the country, claiming that their employer discriminated against them by holding them back in their careers after they became pregnant. They sued on behalf of themselves and other female attorneys at the firm. The employees allege that those who took…

KOURTNEY Liggins worked as an eighth-grade teacher for 5 years at the Transfiguration School, a religious-run school in Los Angeles. Liggins was unmarried and seven months pregnant when her boss told her that her “pregnancy would morally corrupt impressionable teenagers” at the school. Her boss referred to her unborn child as “it” and said that…

WACKENHUT Corporation, which is now known as G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc., is a global security solutions company that employs thousands of private security officers, including some in California. Three former G4S security officers filed a class action lawsuit against the company accusing it of having implemented policies and procedures that resulted in its failure…

DOMINIC Oliveira works as a driver for New Prime, Inc., an interstate trucking company. On paper, Mr. Oliveira is not an employee because he signed contracts with New Prime, labeling him an independent contractor (IC). The contracts Oliveira signed also instruct that any disputes arising out of the parties’ relationship should be resolved by an…

“  Arias came to know of these plans. Fearing that he would be deported and separated from his family, Arias suffered anxiety and emotional distress. One month before trial, Arias entered into a settlement with the employer due in large part to the threat of deportation.” LAST year, we wrote about an undocumented immigrant and…

BRIAN Gruzalski worked as an airplane mechanic for FedEx. Stanley Langevin was his supervisor. Mark Collins was their manager. These three employees sued FedEx claiming that it retaliated against them after complaining that their employer violated the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety requirements by failing to properly repair its planes. During trial, the employees presented evidence…

“ A hostile environment is created when unwelcome sexual conduct unreasonably interferes with an individual’s job performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Even if there is no threat of termination, the manager’s inappropriate conduct is enough to create either an offensive working environment or affects the co-worker’s job performance or both.”…

HERE are some important laws that were created or that took effect in California in 2018 to continue to protect employees: CA Supreme Court Tightens Laws on Independent Contractor Misclassification The Supreme Court ruled that a worker is properly considered an independent contractor to whom employment laws does not apply only if the hiring entity…

A GROUP of Assistant Branch Managers, who worked for JPMorgan Chase in California, sued the bank in a class action claiming they were misclassified as exempt employees. Because of the misclassification, the employees claimed they were denied overtime payment, and they were not provided meal and rest breaks. In order to obtain more facts about…

“A severance pay is usually calculated according to a specific formula, often based on the employee’s length of service. An employee may try to negotiate for more severance pay than what is being offered, especially if the employee has been with the company for many years, has an excellent service record, or has provided increased…

LATE last year, bipartisan senators proposed a new law called Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Act of 2017 for Congress’ approval. This bill would ensure that every person facing sexual harassment in the workplace can make their case in a public court, rather than only behind closed doors in private arbitration. Microsoft immediately threw…

“California law generally requires employers to provide suitable seats to employees when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats. Calfornia courts have clarified that the phrase ‘nature of the work’ refers to the employee’s actual or expected tasks at a given location, and not to the entire range of an employee’s…

“To prevail on a harassment claim, the employee must show that the conduct created a hostile work environment. A hostile work environment is one in which harassment occurs that is severe, frequent, or both.” AUGUSTINE Caldera worked as a correctional officer at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for 20 years. Caldera, who stutters when…

A GROUP of flight attendants from Virgin America, Inc. sued the company for unpaid wages and missed breaks. The employees alleged that Virgin did not pay them for the following: hours worked before, after, and between flights; time spent completing incident reports; time spent in training; time spent taking mandatory drug tests The employees also…

SUSANNA Smith worked as a superintendent, and Cleve Pell worked as an operations officer for the Montebello Unified School District (MUSD). In the course of doing their jobs, Smith and Pell discovered that Ruben Rojas, the Board of Education and Chief Business Officer of the school district, obtained his position by misrepresenting his past employment…

TRISTAN Do worked as a mechanical engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems Company for eight years without any issues. However, that changed when he started reporting to a new supervisor who unfairly singled him out for performance deficiencies. Do believed that his status as a gay man played a role in the supervisor’s harassing…

(Bonuses and shift differential pay can increase overtime rates) “Under California law, overtime pay is computed on the basis of the employee’s “regular rate” of pay. If the employee receives only an hourly rate, then the hourly rate is the regular rate. Employees may be paid in more than one way, for example, an hourly…

(Holding others liable for payment of wages) CALIFORNIA’S Labor Commissioner’s Office has awarded over $45 million in unlawful deductions from wages and out-of-pocket expenses to more than 400 misclassified port drivers. However, most of the drivers have not been able to collect their money because the companies that committed the wage violations have filed bankruptcy…

THE area of sexual harassment litigation involves complex rules that are continually evolving. Last month, California lawmakers signed some laws designed to close several loopholes in California’s sexual harassment laws. Some of the more important common-sense changes include the following: A single incident of harassing conduct is sufficient to create a triable issue regarding the…

EARLY this month, state and local law enforcement arrested employers who were operating adult residential and child care facilities in the Bay Area. The employers were charged with human trafficking and other labor-related crimes, according to various news reports. The charges resulted from a year-long investigation conducted by government agencies into the Rainbow Bright care…

(Employer’s failure to prevent is actionable) COLE H worked as a truck driver for Beverly Fabrics for eight years. During the last 5 years of his employment, he experienced bullying and harassment by a coworker, Dan Rangle. Rangle referred to himself as “Big Swingin’ Dan.” Rangle’s inappropriate comments escalated when he spread gossip among other…

Q:I HAVE been working for 5 years in a Los Angeles company with 52 employees. I requested a leave of absence from work to care for my sick 21 year-old daughter. My boss denied the request and said my position will be given to someone else if I take off. Is this legal? A: No,…

(Your rights to reimbursements may be significant) Q: AS part of my work, I travel to clients using my own car and I pay for gas. I also make several business-related calls on my personal cell phone, although since I have an unlimited plan, I do not really incur additional expenses. Should my employer still…

ALEXANDER Brown and Arik Silva worked as retail sales associates at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., a company that operates retail clothing stores throughout the United States. Brown and Silva sued their employer in a class action, claiming that the employer compelled them to patronize Abercrombie products in violation of California law. The employees claim that…

THE California Fair Pay Act (a.k.a. the Equal Pay Act), enacted in October 2015, prohibits employers from paying employees less than those of the opposite sex for “substantially similar work,” even if their titles are different or they work at different sites. This means the lower paid employee does not have to prove that the…

Q: I WORK as a nurse at a hospital that has a strict policy of no unapproved overtime, and no going on breaks unless we are relieved by another nurse. We are forced to skip our breaks if there is no reliever (which happens a lot because we are often understaffed). As for overtime, we…