A recently published California Court of Appeal decision, Morales v. Superior Court, provides an excellent example of why the precise wording of an arbitration agreement matters. A relatively small difference in contractual language ultimately determined whether an employee’s discrimination and wrongful termination claims would be decided in private arbitration or in court. For employees with potentially significant discrimination, retaliation, or
Employees returning to work after an injury sometimes encounter an unexpected problem: their employer decides that a medical restriction means they can no longer perform their job.
But a medical report does not necessarily give an employer a free pass to terminate an employee. A federal court’s decision in Narayan v. Compass Group USA, Inc. provides a useful example. The
One of the fundamental requirements of a disability discrimination claim is that the employer knew, or reasonably should have known, that the employee had a disability. For obvious reasons, an employer cannot be held liable for discriminating on the basis of a disability it did not know existed.
An employer “knows an employee has a disability” when (1) “the employee
In most retaliation cases, the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) applies the framework established in Novato Unified School District (1982) PERB Decision No. 210 (Novato USD).
Under the Novato USD framework, the charging party must first establish a prima facie case by proving four elements: (1) The employee engaged in an activity protected by a labor relations statute enforced
In almost every California employment case, the employee and the employer have very different explanations for what happened. An employee may believe that he was fired for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. The employer will claim that the same employee was fired for performance issues, poor attendance, misconduct, or a combination of the above reasons. Whether those reasons are true is
The post Three Types of Evidence to Prove A Retaliation Case in California appeared first on San Francisco Employment Law Firm Blog.
Picture the scene: you’re sitting across from a hiring manager who practically vibrates with excitement. The company, you’re told, is “on the verge of a Series C.” Our new product will “change the industry.” Revenues are “projected to triple.” The culture is “like a family.” Six months later, there’s no Series C, the product flopped, and the company just laid
The post Preferring To Hire H1B Visas Holders over US Citizens is Illegal appeared first on San Francisco Employment Law Firm Blog.
Workers in California often assume that because religious beliefs are private, they never have to explain anything about their religion when requesting a workplace accommodation. While it’s true that employers cannot demand intrusive details, many employees make the opposite mistake: they refuse to provide even the basic information needed for the employer to evaluate their request.
Under both Title VII
Some of the most common legal mistakes that California tech startups and other small employers make with their employees are also the easiest to avoid: