Articles Tagged with Orange County employer retaliation

It’s always unfortunate when the trust between an employer and employee is broken. We see it every day in our line of wrongful terminationwork, defending employees whose rights have been violated on the job. It’s doubly hard when an employer chooses to lash out against those who take legal action to protect their rights. The good news is this kind of retaliation is not legal and you are not without options to fight back.

We saw this recently, in Orange County, where the executive assistant of county supervisor Todd Spitzer is suing him for a second time, alleging defamation that followed a wrongful termination in 2016. According to The Orange County Register, the wrongful termination lawsuit was settled last year. Now, plaintiff says her former boss told reporters and other third parties her firing was the result of incompetence, rather than a wage and hour dispute. He further allegedly told these others she refused to take necessary computer classes and implied she could not complete basic computer tasks.

Plaintiff said not only were those statements false, but they are now hurting her ability to find new employment. This spurred the second filing in Superior Court of California, County of Orange. At the time these alleged statements were made, plaintiff says she had already completed several computer classes on her own accord. The lawsuit alleges she even requested an additional computer class, a request which Spitzer rejected shortly before letting her go. It’s worth noting plaintiff worked for the county supervisor for three years by the time of her firing. It would seem one would not survive long in that role absent basic computer knowledge.

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For the first time in nearly two decades, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has revised its guidance on the issue of workplace retaliation. This is an important issue because retaliation is the most frequently-alleged basis of discrimination in federal lawsuits. It occurs when an employer fires, demotes, harasses or otherwise takes an adverse employment action in retaliation for a worker alleging discriminatory conduct.stressed

The new EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues broaden and clarify the definition of what protected activities are. It also outlines the seven U.S. Supreme Court decisions on retaliation that have been handed down since the agency’s last update on the issue back in 1998.  The new guidance notes certain expansion of retaliation rules based on changes in case law. Continue Reading ›

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