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Janelle Perez was hired as a police officer in the Roseville Police Department. A few months into her probationary term, Janelle and a fellow officer, Shad Begley, began a romantic relationship. Both Janelle and Shad were separated from their respective spouses but remained married. Shad's wife,...

Mykyn Woods worked as a Senior Community Manager for Greystar Management Services, a property management company with offices all over the United States. Less than a year after she started working for Greystar, Woods was injured in a vehicle accident. She sustained herniated discs, and ruptures o...

Alexia Herrera worked as a Sales Associate at Zumiez, Inc., a retail store in Chico, California. Zumiez scheduled Herrera and other employees for work according to two scheduling policies. First, Zumiez scheduled employees for "Show-Up" shifts, requiring the employees to physically report for sch...

Shujun Qiu was hired by Three Rivers Provider Network Inc. as its controller. Throughout her employment, Qui excelled at her job and her employer had no complaints about her performance. She was eventually promoted to corporate treasurer.                           On the fifth month of her emplo...

Gerald Bostock worked as a child welfare advocate for Clayton County, Georgia. As an official of the juvenile court and under his leadership, the county won national awards for its work. After a decade with the county, Mr. Bostock began participating in a gay recreational softball league. Soon af...

Elizabeth Carter worked at Dunn-Edwards, the paint store, when her medical condition prevented her from lifting more than 20 pounds. She could, however, still continue to perform most of her essential duties. Her employer thus provided modified work duty by allowing her to ask co-workers for help...

Q:      My work required me to interact with a lot of people. I became infected with COVID-19. I was hospitalized and went on disability leave. After 8 weeks of quarantine and after being relieved of symptoms, my doctor ordered another test, which came back negative. I was then cleared to go back...

Julie Gunther started working as a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines in 2015. In 2017, she sued her employer in a class action, claiming that Alaska Airlines did not provide her with accurate itemized paystubs. This led her to question whether she was in fact paid properly for all the hours sh...

Alejandro Gonzalez worked as a loader coordinator for Swissport, a company which provides airport ground and cargo handling services. Gonzalez worked at Swissport's LAX location for more than 10 years where he was promoted from bag handler to load coordinator due to his stellar performance.      ...

Stanley Vincent worked as a Patrol Officer for the California Highway Patrol for seven years. The Daily Journal reports that Vincent was fired from his job when he took three weeks of leave so he could look for his missing mentally disabled sister. Vincent sued, alleging that the employer's failu...

Q:        Because of the Stay-at-Home order in California, my employer has sent me home on a “work furlough” without pay because I am not an essential worker. It has been more than a month and I still have not been asked to go back to work. Is a work furlough a termination? What are my rights? A...

Last week, CNN reported that ten nurses from Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California were placed on administrative leave for demanding N95 masks while treating Covid-19 patients. The nurses were suspended with pay for refusing to enter Covid-19 patient rooms without N95 ...

As of this writing, the new coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected over two million people globally, and more than 145,000 have died. The outbreak has understandably created worldwide anxiety since the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019. But aside from the panic created, the pand...

Instacart is one of the largest grocery delivery services in the United States. Instacart allows its customers to shop their local grocery using a mobile app or the website. The virtual shopping cart is filled out by an Instacart worker, called a “personal shopper” who goes out to buy the groceri...

These are challenging times for California small businesses. Restaurants, retail stores, and other services sustained (and continue to sustain) coronavirus-related losses. Their damages resulted from severe business interruption, event cancellation, loss of supply chains, and loss of customers am...

Q:        I read about severe cases of COVID-19 infections requiring several weeks of recovery. Can the employer fire me while being on leave due to this illness? Do I have remedies? A:        The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) protects employees' rights to take a leave of absence due to th...

Q:        I work for a company that provides 40 hours of paid sick leave. This is about 5 days of work. If I ever need to take leave due to COVID-19, 5 days may not be enough. What are my options?  A:        As of this writing, the recorded cases of COVID-19 is approaching 11,000 in the United ...

Over a decade ago, four truck drivers sued Wal-Mart claiming Wal-Mart violated California's meal and rest break laws. As part of their job, truckers would travel a wide range of routes, to different locations, hauling different freight.           Wal-Mart paid truckers through an “activity-based...

Riot Games, Inc. is a multi-billion dollar video game developer, with headquarters in Los Angeles, operating in 24 offices around the world and employing about 2,500 workers, 80% of them male. Riot Games' employees, Melanie McCracken and Jessica Negron, sued their employer in a class action, all...

 Q:        I am a working parent with a school-age child, who has been sent home due to fears of infection from the coronavirus. My work entails interacting with people throughout the day. I want to take precautions, practice social distancing, and self-quarantine if necessary. However, I am worr...

Amanda Frlekin and others worked for Apple Inc. as retail store employees in its retail stores in California. Apple requires them to undergo exit searches pursuant to its “Employee Package and Bag Searches” policy, which imposes mandatory searches of employees' bags, packages, purses, backpacks, ...

Ca (And Which of Them Should Pay Back Wages?)                         Elvia Jimenez worked as a direct employee for Ameritemps, a temporary employee staffing service. Ameritemps placed Jimenez with U.S. Continental Marketing, Inc. (USCM), a manufacturing company that makes shoe care products...

Jeremiah Matthews worked as a cook and a maintenance supervisor for Happy Valley Conference Center. Happy Valley is an affiliate of the Community of Christ Church and hosts seminars, retreats, and camps for church members in their property. Mathews was supervised by the executive director, Melin...

On January 29, 2020, the FBI conducted a raid of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name church in Van Nuys, California. During the raid, the federal authorities arrested three top administrators for the church. The FBI alleged that the church was engaging in immigration fraud and ...

Virginia Hoover worked as a radiology technologist for a Dignity Health hospital for 24 years. In December 2012, her arm was injured while she was preparing for a CT scan. The injury resulted in medical restrictions, including the prohibition of lifting more than 15 pounds. She also had to go on ...