Blog

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) entitles employees who work in businesses of 50 or more employees, 12 weeks of leave from work. This benefit is provided when they have to care for their seriously ill child, parent or spouse, for birth of and bonding with a newborn, or for the adoption or ...

Q:        I was diagnosed with early stage cancer a few weeks ago. I can still do my job but I will need about 5 hours off from work every week for 3 months for medical treatments. I asked my manager for intermittent leave. When he refused, I emailed him information from the Labor Commissioner's ...

            Q:        I am a part-time hourly employee working in retail. I work between 20 to 30 hours a week. I recently got sick and had to be out for three days. I was told that I was not entitled to paid sick leave because I was a part-time employee. Is this right?               A:        N...

Eden Smiles worked for Walgreens, the pharmacy giant, as a cashier. She filed a class action case on behalf of current and former non-exempt, hourly-paid cashiers, photo specialists, beauty advisors, and other employees assigned cash register duties who worked for Walgreens. Smiles also filed the...

Aurora Isabel is a Filipina who worked for the Pasadena Water and Power. Isabel complained that her manager discriminated against her for her accent. She was demoted to a field position and was told to stop complaining or she would be demoted again. Her manager told her that she had to learn to s...

Q:        I am thinking of filing an overtime claim against my employer because I and my coworkers are doing a lot of off-the-clock work. However, I am concerned about losing my job and not being able to work in this company any more. Should I still file a claim? What should I do? A:        You ...

Q:        I work for a 100-employee company in Los Angeles. I recently returned to work after maternity leave. Since I decided to breastfeed my newborn, I needed to periodically pump breast milk at work. When I asked my supervisor if there is a room in the building where I could do this, I was to...

Q:        My new supervisor recently told me that I need to wear my hair in a “more conventional” way because it is distracting other people.  My hairstyle is appropriate to my ethnicity and is part of my cultural identity. More importantly, my hair does not interfere with my work. When I said so...

Q:        After I came back from a two-month medical leave, my employer told me that my position was eliminated. However, I heard from a former coworker that the employer hired a person to replace me. Was I wrongfully fired? Can I still file a claim, considering that the firing occurred 11 months...

Darren Stemple worked as a “Business Development Representative” for RingCentral, Inc., a company which sells cloud-based telecommunications systems such as video and audio conferencing, and business app integration software. Its clients include healthcare, finance, real estate, retail stores, an...

Nichelle Duffey worked as an in-home caregiver for Tender Heart Home Care Agency, LLC, a placement agency for caregivers. Duffey signed an agreement with Tender Heart stating that she is an “independent contractor” and “is in the business of providing care giving services in dwellings..." Rate sh...

Q:        I am a full-time hourly employee. While we were told that we have a 30-minute unpaid lunch break every day, we usually cannot take breaks due to the heavy workload. But the employer still deducts 30 minutes for lunch from our work hours. Is this legal?  A:        No. If you did not tak...

Kimberlee Gutierrez worked as a patient registration clerk for Dignity Health for 9 years. Kimberlee had a history of mental disability, which worsened when she was violently attacked by an ex-boyfriend. She took a medical leave of absence for her disability. When she returned to work, she claime...

Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are companies that use the latest communications technology to create new business models which do away with traditional employer-employee relationship. These companies tap into the practice of “outsourcing” or “crowdsourcing” and obtain services directly from the general...

Chastity Jones, is a 42-year-old single mother, who worked as a sales accountant Hologram USA and FilmOn.TV, companies owned by billionaire Alkiviades David. FilmOn.TV Networks is an online television service and Hologram USA operates a hologram theater in Hollywood that has produced holographic ...

Lara May was a dedicated and long-time employee for ABC Equipment Co. (names are changed to protect confidentiality). She was injured at work and had to take an extended medical leave of absence.  Prior to her injury, Lara May was a valued employee at ABC Equipment, and was praised for her work e...

Discrimination on the basis of an employee's foreign accent is a sufficient basis for finding national origin discrimination.

A group of flight attendants from Virgin America, Inc. sued the company for unpaid wages and missed breaks. The employees alleged that Virgin did not pay them for the following: hours worked before, after, and between flights; time spent completing incident reports; time spent in training; ...

(Employer's failure to prevent is actionable) COLE H worked as a truck driver for Beverly Fabrics for eight years. During the last 5 years of his employment, he experienced bullying and harassment by a coworker, Dan Rangle. Rangle referred to himself as “Big Swingin' Dan.” Rangle's inappropria...

Q: I have been working for 5 years in a Los Angeles company with 52 employees. I requested a leave of absence from work to care for my sick 21 year-old daughter. My boss denied the request and said my position will be given to someone else if I take off. Is this legal? A: No, it is not. Your r...

(Your rights to reimbursements may be significant) Q: As part of my work, I travel to clients using my own car and I pay for gas. I also make several business-related calls on my personal cell phone, although since I have an unlimited plan, I do not really incur additional expenses. Should my ...

Alexander Brown and Arik Silva worked as retail sales associates at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., a company that operates retail clothing stores throughout the United States. Brown and Silva sued their employer in a class action, claiming that the employer compelled them to patronize Abercrombie prod...

The California Fair Pay Act (a.k.a. the Equal Pay Act), enacted in October 2015, prohibits employers from paying employees less than those of the opposite sex for “substantially similar work,” even if their titles are different or they work at different sites. This means the lower paid employee...

On May 29, 2018, about 175,000 Starbucks workers at about 8,000 locations will undergo a training on race discrimination. The training session will focus on understanding both racial bias and the history of racial discrimination in public spaces in the United States. Starbucks announced the tr...

In 1995, José Arias, an undocumented immigrant, began work as a milker for Angelo Dairy. Two years later, Arias wanted to accept a job offer with another dairy company. The employer threatened Arias that if he left to work at the other dairy, the employer would report the other dairy to federal...