Protections for California Employees with Disabilities Expanded

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Employees with disabilities in California are protected by the state’s employment laws. For one, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects employees from discrimination, as well as from being deprived of reasonable accommodations. Other related state laws such as the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) provide disabled employees, particularly female employees who are pregnant, are protected by the same rights in employment.

Recently, protections for disabled employees, including pregnant women, have been expanded thanks largely to new regulations. These changes emphasize the importance of the employer’s responsibility to undergo an interactive process with employees and workers with disabilities who might be asking for accommodation in the workplace.

Here are some of the recent changes that expanded the protections of California employees and workers with disabilities:

• A recent Court of Appeal decision held that a covered California employer may provide a reasonable accommodation by providing an employee an additional leave of absence once the four-month pregnancy disability leave has been exhausted. The said ruling stemmed from a case in which an employee was terminated by her employer when she wasn’t able to resume her work after using up her rights for leave under the state’s Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). The employer may have complied with the provisions of the PDL and CFRA, but it failed to engage in an interactive process with the aggrieved employee in knowing if an additional leave of absence is necessary under the FEHA.

• The new regulations with regard to employees and workers with disabilities that took effect at the start of this year emphasize the need for employers to engage in the interactive process with their employees. In particular, the interactive process must start when such employment situation arises:

1. An employee or applicant with a known disability requests for an accommodation;
2. The employer acknowledges the need for an accommodation through a third party; and
3. When an employee uses up all leaves under existing employment laws related to disability.

Covered employers must make sure that they comply with the recent changes and implement them in their current policies and procedures in employment. On the other hand, employees and workers in California must consult with Los Angeles employment lawyers right away if their employers have not made the necessary changes yet.

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EEOC’s 2012 Achievements

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Just before January 2013 ended, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a report that discusses the progress of its campaigns against job bias or workplace discrimination charges for the past year. The EEOC is one of the many government agencies that are responsible for the implementation of various labor laws enacted by the federal and state governments in the US. Through its many years of service, the agency has managed to handle, settle, and win thousands of employment discrimination charges.

Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2012 EEOC report
In 2012, the EEOC has time and again shown the effectiveness of the various programs that it have been implementing. When it comes to job bias charges, the agency has processed and pursued nearly 100,000 cases for the last fiscal year. Private sector workplace discrimination charges have dropped by 10 percent for last year. 37,836 race discrimination and 33,512 sex discrimination charges are included in the said report. Of the sex discrimination charges, sexual harassment and pregnancy were the most frequently filed charges for 2012.

On a roll
2012 has been a very successful year for the various campaigns of the EEOC as it was able to significantly reduce the number of charges for the second year in a row. Additionally, this has been a banner year for the agency as they were able to post the largest amount of monetary recovery from both the private, state, and local government through the EEOC’s administrative processes at $365.4-million.

Also last year, the EEOC has filed 122 lawsuits that include 86 individual suits, 26 multiple-victim suits, as well as 10 systemic suits. Moreover, the agency’s legal staff has managed to resolve 254 lawsuits, amounting to $44.2 million worth of total monetary recovery. And the EEOC promises more to come as it has been able to conduct 240 systemic investigation that has been key to the resolution of 46 settlements or conciliation agreements which helped them get $36.2 million to victims of discrimination.

Keeping the momentum
These achievements by the EEOC echo the agency’s dedication in giving justice to wronged employees. As the country faces another year, the EEOC promises to help bring justice to people that were abused, discriminated against, and harassed by their employers.

Continuous fight against abuses in the workplace
These successes of the EEOC in the past few years should make people have the guts to go out and fight for their rights. So if you have ever been a victim of workplace discrimination, abuse, or harassment; you can always seek the advice of Los Angeles employment lawyers to help guide you in the right direction in filing your claims for workplace abuse. The EEOC is also there to help make sure that no one falls prey to some individuals, employers, and companies’ abuse and discrimination.

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About the Recent Job Layoffs Involving Two Giant Companies

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Job layoffs happen due to various reasons. Mostly, the announcement of job cuts is due to the financial situation of a certain entity, particularly a company. Sometimes, large companies don’t lay off a part of their workforce, especially if they are doing well with its operations and are fairly competitive in terms of its economic standing. However, even with that status, job layoffs still occur even on big-named companies.

Such was the case of the tech giant Google and the beverage company Coca-Cola. Just this month alone, these two companies announced their plans to lay off numbers of workers in their business locations.

First off was the Google’s announcement of a job layoff this month, where the search engine company decided to let go of more than 1,200 of its workers in its Motorola Mobility Division. Said layoff represented 10 percent of the manpower of Motorola, which Google acquired May last year. Incidentally, Google had already announced a layoff prior to this one. It happened October last year when the company planned to lay off about 4,000 jobs on the same division.

The layoff was partly due to Motorola’s flailing performance in which it experienced financial losses. Because of this, Google saw it fit to lay off some of its workers, as well as initiate a reconstruction of the Motorola facility and outsource much of its business.

The next one was the planned shutdown of a Coca-Cola manufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif., which would affect at least 60 of its employees. The plant operations will cease anytime soon, and the company is in a dilemma on how to deal with the workers who were projected to be let go of their jobs.

According to the company’s spokesperson, it has not decided yet whether they’ll provide severance packages to the laid off workers or have them reassigned to a different location. Although the company promised to compensate them after the plant closure, some members of its workforce were upset after learning of the plan.

Nevertheless, job layoffs, especially involving companies such as the two mentioned above, have to be depressing on the part of the workers. Meanwhile, Los Angeles employment lawyers believe that it is important for companies to allot a certain amount of budget to help aid laid off workers, and that non-compliance to such requirement is an employment violation.

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About Wrongful Terminations: What You Need to Think About

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An employment dismissal or discharge is an employment decision that is not uncommon in most workplaces. Most of the time, an employer terminates an employee if the latter makes a wrongdoing that go against the policies of the company or workplace. As such, the groundwork for arriving at such decision must always lean on what is stipulated under employment laws.

However, as far as terminating an employee is concerned, there are those employers who expose themselves to lawsuits regarding wrongful discharge. More often than not, there are motivating factors as to why wrongful termination, such as the basis of discrimination, as well as retaliation in the workplace.

Incidentally, if you are an employee, it is important that you know everything about wrongful termination. Apart from it being one of the most common employment violations in the United States, it is also one of the cases that are mostly filed by many aggrieved employees. As an employee, it is vital on your part to exercise your rights.

Apparently, if you filed for a wrongful termination claim, you may be entitled to damages. That, of course, would depend on the severity and the impact of the employment decision. They may include back pay, promotion, reinstatement, reasonable accommodations, future relief, and punitive damages.

Commonly, wrongful termination often involves an employer firing an employee because of sex, age, race, disability, and other motivating factors. Also, termination occurs when an individual refuses to engage in an illegal activity upon the employer’s request. Doing such is called retaliation, and it also happens when the employee files a claim against the employer in connection with alleged discrimination of the latter.

Because of the many instances of wrongful termination in the workplace, as well as the fact that you may be entitled to damages if you win such employment case, it is important that you consult first with any of the best Los Angeles employment lawyers in your area. By speaking with one, you are protected of your rights and reputations as an employee.

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Fresno County Sues Car Wash for Unpaid Wages

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Wage and hour claims and lawsuits are nothing new in the State of California. In fact, a lot of cases surface involving inconsiderate employers who are found to have unpaid their employees the right and just amount of wages or salaries. Whether these incidents are purely unintentional or otherwise, the fact still remains: not being able to provide wages or salaries is a violation in the California labor laws.

Take for instance what happened to a car wash establishment in Fresno, California. The California Labor Commissioner Julie Su has filed a suit against the owner of White Glove car wash after the latter was found to have failed to provide its employees minimum wage and overtime pay, among all other labor law violations.

At least 33 workers of the said car wash were affected because of the alleged violations of the car wash establishment. The lawsuit is seeking more than $279,000.00 in unpaid wages and other damages as a result of the employer’s violations. Said suit was filed in the County Superior Court of Fresno.

Basically, the Labor Commissioner’s Office found in its investigation that the owner, Manbir Walia, failed to pay proper hourly wages and overtime pay to his employees. Evidence also found that the supervisor instructed the workers not to log in to their timecards upon arrival at the car wash establishment.

Sometimes, the workers had to wait for several hours before they could log in. Because of this, the lawsuit claimed, workers who have been working in a regular eight-hour stretch may have been paid less than the amount required for them receive.

According to Labor Commissioner Su, the employer breached “the basic promise of a just day’s pay for a hard day’s work.” Additionally, the state’s Department of Industrial Relations Director Christine Baker said that such “illegal actions hurt not only the employees but also honest businesses and taxpayers.”

Meanwhile, legal experts such as the Los Angeles employment lawyers continue to urge employees and workers who have been wronged by their employers to stand up for their rights.

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California’s Expanded Laws on Religious Accommodation in Employment

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The State of California is known having one of the most stringent yet diverse employment and labor laws. In fact, every year, amendments on certain legislations are implemented to further protect California employees from any acts of discrimination on their employers. These include expansions on some of the already-existing laws.

In fact, the start of the year 2013 brought new perspective on the employment and labor laws of the state. Some seven state laws were passed by the California legislature and Governor Jerry Brown since January 1, and one of them was the expansion of the state anti-discrimination laws protecting employees’ religious beliefs and practices.

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees on the basis of the latter’s religious beliefs. Since January 1, the FEHA expanded its definition to include “religious dress and grooming practices” as stipulated in the California Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2012 or WRFA.

To put it simply, the new law, and subsequently the FEHA amendments, state that California employers cannot discriminate or harass their employees who wear dresses or groom themselves to work as part of their religious obligation. Not only that; employers covered by the FEHA are also tasked to provide reasonable accommodation to their employees’ religious dress or grooming practice.

Under the WRFA, an employee is allowed to wear or carry any type of “religious clothing, head or face coverings, jewelry, artifacts and any other item” in observance “of his or her religious creed.” Meanwhile, an employee can groom him or herself as part of his or her observance of his or her religious creed, including head, facial, and body hair.

Moreover, the laws state that it is unreasonable for covered employers to provide accommodation to their employees if the latter is required to be segregated from either the public or from other workers. The California FEHA now recognizes it as an illegal employment move and a clear violation of the state anti-discrimination laws.

Such amendments further established California as a state that duly protects its employees from experiencing discrimination and harassment. Incidentally, if you have been a victim of discrimination in California after you have been fired from your job because of your dress or grooming practice, you may seek the expertise of a Los Angeles wrongful termination lawyer.

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