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Many people who stay in hotels, even very expensive luxury hotels, will leave all kinds of trash for housekeepers to deal with.  According to a recent news article from NBC Los Angeles, this often includes medical waste that must be specially handled and safely disposed of in an approved receptacle.

syringe-1535962While the hotel chains are required to show a safety video to housekeepers and other hotel staff, according to a complaint filed by the employees of one high-end hotel in Beverley Hills, many workers claim they are not provided with the waste disposal equipment and other safety equipment featured in the worker safety video.  In other words, their employer is telling them they are aware of the problem, want employees to know there is a hazard and the safe way to handle medical waste, but allegedly does not want to spend the money providing workers with the necessary tools to complete this task. Continue Reading ›

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Chicken doesn’t come cheap. Or at least, not for the workers who toil to process it for the masses. chicken

A new report by Oxfam America asserts workers in U.S. poultry processing plants risk high rates of injury, illness, difficult working conditions and unsympathetic bosses. But perhaps the worst offense, the one that is the greatest assault on their dignity as human beings: Lack of access to adequate restroom breaks.

This takes a toll on all workers, but women especially. Routinely, the workers say they are denied requests to use the restroom. Supervisors not only deny or ignore their requests, they mock them for it. They threaten punishment. In some cases, they threaten to fire them. Workers told researchers it was not uncommon for them to wait up to an hour or more after making the request. Even when acquiesced, the supervisors usually set a time frame in which they must return.

Horrifyingly, workers say they are forced to wear diapers that allow them to urinate and defecate where they stand on the assembly line. They reduce the amount of liquids they drink – sometimes to a dangerous degree – so they won’t risk needing to use the restroom at work. They endure pain and discomfort and worse, serious health problems as a result of these violations of basic human rights.  Continue Reading ›

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A $57,500 settlement was reached in an Orange County gender discrimination lawsuit in which plaintiff, an employee of Irvine Range Water District, alleged she suffered system sexism by her superiors. secretary

Although the settlement agreement did not require the employer to concede any wrongdoing, plaintiff’s complaint asserted there was plenty.

According to the lawsuit, plaintiff was hired as an engineering technician for the district back in 2007. Four months later, she was promoted to executive secretary and then the following year, she received another promotion to analyst. However, things began to spiral downward when a new supervisor came on-board.  Continue Reading ›

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A sharply divided California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Eight, issued a decision allowing a plaintiff to proceed with his associational disability discrimination claim against his employer. This was a reversal of the trial court’s opinion in Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highways Express Inc., wherein a father alleged he was fired for his need to assist his disabled son. gaveljan

This kind of “association” discrimination is outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which bars discrimination against an employee based on their association or relationship with an individual who has a known disability. The provision in 42 U.S.C. 12112(b)(4) means a company is forbidden from taking adverse action against a worker simply for associating with or having a relationship with someone who is disabled.

Under the ADA, companies are required to give qualified workers with disabilities reasonable accommodations. However, federal courts have held in prior cases (see Tyndall, 4th Cir. 1994, Overly, 6th Cir. 2006) that this association discrimination provision doesn’t mean workers are entitled to employment modifications in order to care for a disabled spouse or child. Continue Reading ›

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A former division chief for the San Bernadino Fire Protection District has been awarded more than $700,000 by a jury in California after successfully arguing he was the victim of age discrimination. oldwoman

Jurors determined age with the “substantial motivating reason” behind the termination of the then-58-year-old fire official. Now 62, he’s been awarded $544,000 in lost wages and benefits and $160,000 in future lost wages.

He’d been working at the department for eight years at the time of his termination. He now serves as chief of the Running Springs Fire Department.  Continue Reading ›

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Assurance of equal pay is an important issue in California and across the country. workergrinding

Before last year, California had one of the toughest equal pay laws on the books. It got even tougher in December when lawmakers passed the California Equal Pay Act, which formally went into effect Jan. 1, 2016. The law requires women and men who do substantially similar work to be paid equally – no matter how their jobs are officially described. The goal was to avoid situations in which companies would hide behind job titles to pay women less for doing the same work as men. For example: Housekeepers at a hotel shouldn’t be paid less than the janitors at the same facility who clean bathrooms and common areas – much the same work in both cases.

But now, there is a proposed amendment to that law which would include a provision to ensure those of different races or ethnicity are not given the short stick when it comes to equal pay.

Continue Reading ›

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Amid growing allegations of widespread sexual harassment at the University of California Berkely, California’s top sexual harassment investigator is initiating a comprehensive review of training policies throughout the state. womenworkers

The California Department of Fair Housing, responsible for enforcing the state’s civil rights laws, has created a task force that will specifically focus the effectiveness of current sexual harassment awareness training. The effort is being overseen by the department’s director, Kevin Kish.

The announcement came just two months after a number of allegations of misconduct by faculty arose at the university, which became national news and sparked a conversation about how we handle gender discrimination at universities and colleges. Continue Reading ›

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A woman who practices Catholicism says she was wrongfully terminated from her job at a bottled water company in Nevada because she refused to convert to Scientology.holybible

The employment lawsuit asserting religious discrimination alleges the worker was under pressure to watch pro-Scientology videos and was turned down for a pay raise when she did not show interest in switching faiths.

Based in Las Vegas, the company, Real Alkalized Water (also known as AffinityLifestyles.com) is owned by Nevada state Assemblyman Brent Jones, a Republican. His son, who is vying for an open state Assembly seat in the November election, is the executive vice president of the firm.  Continue Reading ›

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According to a recent news feature from the National Law Review, a new law has taken effect in California that will make some changes to the state’s mandatory sexual harassment education requirement.

frustratedSpecifically, the new law will require employers to have training about topics such as discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliatory employment practices.  There will also be requirement to document the training and keep detailed records in the event of an inspection by the state labor regulators.   Continue Reading ›

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According to a recent news feature from Benefits News, a new labor law taking effect in 2018 will increase the amount of pay for family leave based upon a percentage of their average weekly wages during normal (not overtime) working hours.

pregnancy2The state employment law will provide California’s workers with six week of paid family leave, and this will be administered through a state unemployment provision of the labor code.  While this may sound confusing, Governor Jerry Brown signed Bill 908 into law that will require workers in California to have 55 percent of their average weekly wages paid for up to six weeks a year if that employee decided to take the up to six weeks of family leave to which all workers are entitled each year. Continue Reading ›

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