Los Angeles, California Employment Law Blog

California lawmakers are attempting to enact a new law that would prohibit discrimination against persons who are unemployed. Only one other state has achieved this legal standard to date. Democratic Assemblyman Michael Allen sponsored this important bill and introduced it to the legislature on Jan. 5. The bill sets fines up to $10,000 that could be levied against companies that violate the proposed bill.

The bill would overcome certain common practices among California employers to screen out certain unemployed applicants. One reason this type of discrimination is harmful is that it would target veterans recently separated from military service, women who have taken a maternity leave and other minority groups that have a tendency for high unemployment rates.

In a typical California restaurant there are waitresses, bus boys, hostesses, bar tenders and other staff members. There is a different pay structure for each position based upon the duties and the way the food industry operates. For instance, a hostess does not have the opportunity to earn tips from customers, so they generally get paid a higher base pay than a server or bartender whose income is largely based on the tips patrons customarily leave.

Servers and bartenders are fairly compensated for the lowered base pay by these tips, but what about when they are required to perform jobs that do not require tips? More than 5,500 Applebee's employees brought a wage and hour lawsuit that said they should be paid minimum wage during those "extra, non-tip producing" jobs.

A case was recently brought to the attention of the California Court of Appeals after a trial court judge stepped in to take the verdict out of the hands of the jury. The case was a sexual harassment suit brought by an employee who felt that she had been forced to work in a hostile work environment.

The jury determined that the female employee had been forced to experience severe or pervasive harassment, the threshold required for an award in the case. The jury determined that the woman had suffered damages in the amount of $250,000. A very rare JNOV or "judgment notwithstanding the verdict" was entered in this case. A JNOV means that despite the jury's ruling, a judge found that there was insufficient evidence to uphold the verdict, and the Court of Appeals agreed.

Generally speaking, when someone faces a serious medical condition that requires treatment, he or she can take a leave of absence from his or her job under the Family and Medical Leave Act. When he or she returns to work from a protected medical leave, he or she is guaranteed to return to the same or a similar position.

When a man found himself facing a medical condition that required serious medical treatment, he took a medical leave from his job to recuperate. However, upon his return his managerial duties were modified and his supervisory authority was eliminated. He was also required to work at a different location.

Sept. 11, 2001 was absolutely, no doubt a tragic and terrible day for many Americans across the country. No one would deny that fact, but since then, many Americans -- with no connection to that day's occurrences -- have continued to suffer from religious discrimination and harassment in the workplace simply for their beliefs and outward appearance.

A Muslim employee in California has felt like he was not only discriminated against since that day over ten years ago, but he said that he has been blatantly and seriously harassed. "I'm tired of being called Osama Bin Laden," said the employee in a complaint to a federal agency.

Many persons seeking employment are aware that the company they wish to work for might check their credit scores as part of a routine hiring procedure. If an employer has to choose between a prospective employee with a good credit record and one that has a bad credit history, they most likely would not hire the applicant with a poor credit record. A representative from Manpower San Diego cites that, under California law, this is now prohibited.

The problem with relying on a credit report as an indicator of ethics, honesty or other desirable personal character qualities is that a poor credit record can develop due to circumstances beyond the control of that individual. Financial problems frequently arise following a medical emergency, death in the family, divorce or other circumstances that also can lead to negative entries on a credit report. A bad credit record is not necessarily a good measure of personal trustworthiness.

A large clothing manufacturer and clothing distributor based in California settled a disability discrimination lawsuit in December 2011. The business employs about 10,000 people in 285 retail stores. The stores are located in 20 different countries. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit on behalf of a garment worker that was fired while he was on leave because of a disability, a violation of federal law. The EEOC stated that the firing was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

During the lawsuit, the EEOC and the clothing company worked together to come to a settlement. The settlement terms state that the clothing business must pay the fired garment worker $40,000 in addition to providing training to the company's managers and supervisors.

San Francisco minimum wage workers will be celebrating more than just the New Year as Dec. 31, 2011 rolls into Jan. 1, 2012 and the ball drops. For those individuals, it will mean a wage and hour law mandated raise from $9.92 per hour to $10.24 for every hour worked. While the raise only amounts to a 32 cent increase, we have all heard the adage that every penny counts.

Those minimum wage workers in San Francisco will not only be the highest paid minimum wage workers in California but across the entire United States. The federal minimum wage currently rests at $7.25 per hour and California laws mandate at least $8 per hour. The San Francisco increase is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012.