Some employees (and some employee-rights attorneys) believe that if they are wrongfully terminated and able to get a new job just days later, they will only be able to recover a few thousand dollars and it would not be “worth it” to pursue a claim, especially if they have to pay an attorney to get [...]

This is our third post in our series on “family status” discrimination. The last post dealt with examples of “moral stereotyping” where an employer’s belief on what women should do motivates their discrimination. This post deals with what I call “assumption” stereotyping, which deals with instances where an employer is motivated by their [...]

This is my second post in our multi-part series on “family status” discrimination, which is becoming more and more common under both federal and state law.
There are many ways family status discrimination can happen in the workplace, some of which are very subtle and difficult to prove. Other types are not subtle at all, [...]

One employment law claim that has been quickly becoming more popular these days is “family status discrimination”. That is, discriminating against someone based on their familial obligations or simply because they have a family in the first place.
Widespread use of this claim is so recent that it does not even have a consistent name [...]

Apparently there is a new game show out called “Moment of Truth” that gives contestants a lie detector test before the show and then the host asks them the same questions on the air. If the contestant’s answer on the air is different from the results of the polygraph, they lose (up to [...]

A Reuters story this morning deals with what is both one of the most liberal paid leave policies I have ever seen and also one of the most blatantly discriminatory.
Hime & Company, a Tokyo-based marketing firm, offers paid leave to employees who have a bad breakup, termed “heartache leave”.  While this is quite generous and [...]

A timely study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) that was released on Tuesday finds that the vast majority of corporations have some sort of formal anti-discrimination policy.
However, failure to adequately communicate such policies is a frequent problem, where only 80% of those companies rate anti-discrimination training “either somewhat or very important”.
This study is [...]

Well, the California Supreme Court finally released its opinion in Ross v. Ragingwire Telecommunications, Inc., S138130, today and I have to say I am disappointed with the opinion, although I think the dissenting opinion was completely on the mark.
The Decision
The Court decided that employers can terminate employees in California who use medical marijuana with a [...]

In this third and final installment in our series on Ron Paul’s comments about employee rights in his book Freedom Under Siege, we examine his views on civil rights legislation in general, which can be found in several sections of his book, but is best summed up with the following quote found on page [...]

This is the second in our series of posts based on Presidential Candidate Ron Paul’s musings on employee rights in his book Freedom Under Siege. This installment’s “Paulism” can be found on page 17 of the book:
The idea that the social do-gooder can legislate a system which forces industry to pay men and women [...]

I have tried to tune out most of the political primary hysteria because I (1) made up my mind about who I would be supporting in the election long ago and (2) I live in California, so my opinion is not really that important at this stage.
Today I happened to stumble across some of Ron [...]

In the United States, employers must actively engage in an “interactive process” with disabled employees to try and find a “reasonable accommodation” for their disability, even if no such accommodation actually exists.
What is an “Interactive Process”?
What this means is if an employer knows one of their employees is disabled and they suspect that employee might [...]

Let me first say that I rarely disagree with decisions by California state or federal appellate courts (at least those I am not personally involved in and therefore biased towards). However, I occasionally come across a case where I just think the court got it wrong.
In Mokler v. County of Orange, et.al. (Cal.App.Dist.4 11/26/2007), No. [...]

According to an article in today’s Los Angeles Times, Congressional Republicans are pushing to amend federal anti-discrimination laws to do away with the provision that prohibits employers from requiring employees to only speak English at work.
Currently, under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act such an “English-only” policy is considered national origin discrimination. [...]

Yesterday the California Supreme Court heard arguments in Ross v. Ragingwire Telecommunications, Inc.
In this case, the employee was refused employment because his pre-employment drug test came back positive for marijuana. The employee had been using medical marijuana at the direction of his physician to deal with lower back strain and muscle spasms.
Case Background
Under [...]

This is our final installment in a series dealing with employee rights laws that California’s legislature passed in 2007, but which Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed last month before they could take effect.
SB 836
Senate Bill 836 was heralded nationwide as the first law prohibiting employer discrimination against employees based on their “family status”.
For example, discrimination against employees [...]

California has passed a law providing employees whose spouses are on active military duty with protected leave from work to be with their spouses when they are on leave from duty.
Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 392 into law last month and it became effective immediately. The Bill has two main components:

An employer of more [...]

Sometimes it is easy to forget that discrimination against women, minorities and (of course) minority women still occurs in this country.
This might bring to mind examples where uneducated, unskilled women are denied employment and/or harassed by uneducated men who think of them as sex objects, such as in the movie North Country.
However, as discussed on [...]

One of the strongest job protections for employees in the United States is for those who take a leave of absence to serve in the armed forces. I have seen a dramatic increase in these claims in just the past year and I recently filed a federal lawsuit for a client in San Francisco [...]

Q: I took a one-month FMLA medical leave for surgery, but my employer laid me off two weeks into the leave. I have always heard that an employer cannot terminate an employee who is on a medical leave. Is this true?
–Unemployed (CA)
A: It is a common misconception among employees that employers [...]

Q: I moved to California from Wisconsin six months ago to take a job with a company here. I quit a good job back home, my wife sacrificed a job she loved, and our kids had to leave all of their friends behind, and we moved our family to California. I was [...]

Q: One of my co-workers has asked me to testify for in her discrimination case against our employer. I want to help, but I am afraid that my employer will retaliate against me if I help her.
–Want to Help But Scared (CA)
A: Both state and federal discrimination laws prohibit retaliation by employers [...]

Q: My boss is a real jerk. She harasses me for no good reason, calls me names and belittles me in front of other employees. Today I finally told her not to treat me like that anymore, because it interferes with my work and it is unprofessional. She fired me on the spot for complaining. [...]

Q: Last week I found out I was pregnant and my husband and I were overjoyed. The next day, I went into work and told my boss. He said that he does not allow pregnant women to work there because they disrupt scheduling when they take time off to have the baby. [...]

The term “Wrongful Termination” encompasses many things with regard to California Employment law. At its broadest, this means any termination that is illegal under state or federal law. In its narrowest use, it means terminations that violate California’s “public policy” and which courts have ruled are an illegal basis for termination.
In California, this doctrine has [...]