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In recent years, Disney World in Florida has been the subject of half a dozen similar lawsuits of discrimination on the basis of race, religion and national origin involving some of its 1,000 security workers.disneycastle

So far, none of the cases has succeeded. A jury ruled against one plaintiff whose case went to trial, and three others were dismissed voluntarily by the plaintiff for either personal or financial reasons. But those who study employment law as well as those who practice it – both in Florida and here in California (home to Disneyland in Anaheim) recognize that six lawsuits over the course of three years – all by security guards and all for the same general reasons – alerts to a red flag of potentially a more serious problem. Continue Reading ›

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In California, employers must provide up to four months of disability leave for workers who are disabled due to pregnancy, childbirth or some related medical condition. This time doesn’t have to be taken all at once, nor does it apply solely to full-time workers.pregnancy2

A woman need not be totally incapacitated or bedridden to be deemed disabled by pregnancy, but she must be unable to perform one or more essential job functions without undue risk to her or the child. Any periodic absences prior to childbirth can be subtracted from that four-month time frame.

The law also bars harassment on the basis of pregnancy and requires companies to provide reasonable accommodates for pregnant workers as necessary. Some of these protections went into effect in California as late as 2012. Many other states lack this kind of broad worker protection, but many employees continue to fight for their rights for working women in the course of their pregnancy.

In the recent case of Wages v. Stuart Mgt., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit weighed one such pregnancy discrimination case. Plaintiff alleged employer violated her rights under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Continue Reading ›

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In the case of Cote v. Wal-Mart, Inc., filed within the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleges the big box chain store engaged in gender discrimination when it refused to extend spousal benefits to the wife of a female employee. holdinghands1

This argument hasn’t yet been vetted in courts, though that is the stance of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In this case, plaintiff filed a complaint with the EEOC last year, as a prerequisite to filing her lawsuit against her former employer. The EEOC determined Wal-Mart had engaged in discrimination by denying benefits to the worker’s wife.

According to news reports of the case, the employee sued the company on the basis of its prior policy of denying health care insurance to husbands and wives of gay and lesbian employees. Plaintiff seeks class action certification for her lawsuit, which was filed in Boston, Mass. Continue Reading ›

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One of the most dearly held rights Americans have is stated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: The right of free speech.

It allows us to speak our minds without fear of government infringement. microphone

But that’s just the thing: It pertains to government infringement, not infringement by private companies. And what’s more, if the government is the employer, the worker may be limited in what he or she can say without facing termination as well.

The circumstances under which speech may be protected will be based on the kind and purpose of the speech. So for example, if a worker for an airline speaks out about a major safety concern that’s been ignored by company officials, that could be considered protected speech because it is carried out in the interest of public safety. That worker may even have whistleblower protection. However, if that same worker puts the airline CEO on blast on the worker’s social media page, that might not be protected, and the company could have the right to take adverse employment action. Continue Reading ›

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Somewhere between 1 and 3 million workers migrate from various locations across the world – usually Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean – to work as laborers in U.S. farms. farms

Vital as these workers are to the labor force, they are often mistreated, underpaid and sometimes even abused. Employers sometimes use threats and intimidation to silence these workers from reporting workplace injuries, wage theft violations and sexual abuse.

Although these workers aren’t the only labor force to suffer from a concept known as “misclassification,” they certainly are subjected to it quite often.

Misclassification refers to an illegal practice by employers of classifying workers as “independent contractors” rather than “employees” to evade paying workers’ compensation insurance premiums, benefits, certain taxes and fair wages. Continue Reading ›

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The Family and Medical Leave Act – also routinely referred to as “FMLA” – entitles most workers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. Workers can take up to 12 months in a given period, and it can be for anything from the birth of a child (within one year) to the serious health condition of a spouse to an illness that renders the employee unable to work.bloodpressure1

What many people don’t realize about this act is that the time to which they are entitled doesn’t necessarily need to be taken all at once.

For example, if a worker injures her back and her doctor grants permission to take periodic time off work as needed for pain, there are allowances for that.

Unfortunately, many employers don’t realize this either, and workers may face disciplinary action or even wrongful termination for exercising these rights. Continue Reading ›

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With an upcoming presidential election getting closer, all of the candidates are busy making campaign speeches and trying to garner support from likely voters. According to a recent news article from Huffington Post, Hillary Clinton has vowed that she will do whatever she can as president to crack down on the rampant misclassification of employees that is going on across this country.

job-concept-1445172-4-mOne of the companies who may be most affected by this vow is Uber, the popular mobile ridesharing app and service which just suffered what many legal experts considered to be a devastating blow in a recent decision by the employment commission in California. In that decision, a commission determined Uber drivers are in fact employees for the purpose of labor rights and workers’ compensation benefits and not independent contractors, as the company would like everyone to believe. Continue Reading ›

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Retail workers often have a much harder time than most people would imagine. While it might not seem like the hardest to job to stand in a store, manage the shelves and check out customers, there are a lot of challenging aspects when trying to earn a living and take care of a family in the retail industry.

black4First of all, most retail jobs are not full-time positions, and many retail workers are forced to work two or even three separate jobs to make enough money to get by each month. However, even though an employee might be working well in excess of 40 hours per week, he or she will not be entitled to overtime pay, fulltime employee benefits, or even paid sick leave in many cases. Retail employees are also constantly being accused of theft of merchandise, even when there is not evidence or reason to make such accusations, and management is constantly verbally abusing them. Continue Reading ›

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Long gone are the days when most employees will be able to work for 20 or 25 years with the same employer or government agency and collect a pension when they finally decide to retire. Even when retirement benefits are offered, they often require employees to contribute to the plans with deductions from their paychecks, and then the money is placed in a mutual fund or IRA administered through a management agency that has entered into a contract with an employer. If the employee leaves the job, any money that has vested must be removed from the policy with a tax penalty or kept in the plan at the cost of the worker, as the company will no longer pay the administrative costs.

uscapitolAccording to a recent news article from the Los Angeles Times, President Barack Obama has given his support to an effort in California to give more retirement benefits to employees working in the state. Continue Reading ›

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According to a recent news story from The Daily Californian, a large group of demonstrators were singing in protest at California Hall to protest University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and its decision to use contract-based workers instead of full-time employees on the campus.

on-the-quad-60945-mThis group of demonstrators said the university was being “super cheap” in their hiring practices and called on the university to hire more union workers to fill those jobs. This group of protesters included both workers and students, and they went to the chancellor’s office holding a cake that was decorated with the phrase, “I don’t always pay fair wages, but when I do it’s in Berkeley and Richmond.” The group also sang songs they had written for the protest. They were asking for fair wages, decent healthcare, and for the university to hire employees instead of using more contractors. Continue Reading ›

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