It is fairly common for sweeping employment law legislation to be introduced in the California legislature and I usually do not pay much attention to these bills because they usually do not become law.

One of two things almost always happens: (1) the republicans introduce a pro-employer bill that will never pass the democratically-controlled legislature or (2) the democrats introduce a pro-employee bill that passes but is then vetoed by…

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. There is a “business necessity” exception to this rule where speaking English is necessary to…

California 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 who are single parents who have to take their child to the doctor would be…

This is a real dilemma for many employees who have their own immediate families to also think about and cannot afford to be terminated, but are also needed to care for other close family members.

These are the kinds of protections that should be “no brainers” under California law. If an employee’s domestic partner is seriously ill, they should be able to take time off to care for them. Period.

As the end of the year approached, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed several employee protections the California legislature passed in 2007. While he felt it was important to give full protections to military spouses whose husbands or wives were on leave, he deemed other employees to be less deserving of similar rights.

This is the first in a series of posts on several important employee rights bills that the legislature passed this…

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:

1. An employer of more than 25 people must provide an employee with up to 10 days of unpaid leave…