Two federal judges in California have ruled that it should be up to a jury to decide whether drivers for on-demand ride serves Lyft and Uber should be classified as independent contractors or employees. The reason it matters is because if the drivers are in fact employees, the companies have…
A former high school football coach in Southern California who was wrongly terminated for blowing the whistle on a sexual hazing scandal at a Catholic school will receive nearly $5 million in damages. Jurors decided with the coach in his lawsuit and awarded him $900,000 in compensatory damages, and gave…
When wage-and-hour disputes are investigated by state or federal authorities, there may be a finding of wrongdoing and the company may agree to settle the matter with the government, in an effort to avoid litigation. However, workers may be free to pursue additional litigation, assuming they didn’t sign away their…
A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed by a former female employee of social media giant Twitter, alleging the way the company initiated promotions was discriminatory to women workers. The gender discrimination lawsuit is just the latest to be filed against a California-based technology firm. Others that have faced…
Inspired by the Academy Awards acceptance speech of actress Patricia Arquette, a group of female Democrat lawmakers are introducing a bill that would help women workers earn the same paycheck as men for the same work. The measure, SB 358, is sponsored by the Democratic members of the California Legislative…
In the 1980s, a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS was a death sentence. It was also essentially a license to discriminate, and employers did so frequently. Although it has since become illegal to do so and the stigma surrounding the condition has waned, discrimination against HIV-positive workers continues. Some of…
A California lawsuit accuses a large cable company of forcing hourly workers in California to toil through designated brake times, among other wage-and-hour violations, according to the latest lawsuit filed against the firm. In Spratt v. DirecTV Enterprises LLC, filed within the Los Angeles Superior Court, a former maintenance worker…
One of the ways companies frequently attempt to skirt overtime wage laws is to wrongly classify workers as exempt. They may fudge the definition of the job, or in some cases, simply look for any available legal loophole and stretch it to fit the situation. The recent case of McMaster…
A federal appeals court has affirmed a judgment in favor of a company accused of disability discrimination, finding because employee never informed her bosses of the nature of her disability and never requested accommodations, she could not prove the reason for her termination was the disability. Walz v. Ameriprise Fin.…
A California appellate court reversed a $285,000 verdict in favor of a former spa worker who alleged her employer failed to take reasonable steps necessary to protect her from the sexual harassment and gender discrimination of two customers. The issue was that although jurors ruled defendant was not liable for…