California Employment Lawyers Blog

In this month's Costa Mesa, California employment lawyers newsletter, Howard Law attorney Vincent Howard reviewed key California and federal labor and employment law developments from 2011--hot topics that our Riverside, California employment lawyers blog covered over the course last year, including GINA's final regulations, the Supreme Court's ruling in the Walmart v. Dukes sex-discrimination lawsuit, and Charlie Sheen's wrongful termination lawsuit against Warner Brothers and Chuck Lorre, among others.

GINA's Final Regulations Take Effect
After the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted unanimously in late 2010, the final regulations that implement the employment provisions of GINA (Title II), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, took effect in early 2011. Title II of GINA represents the first extension of the EEOC's jurisdiction since the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and makes it illegal for employers to engage in genetic testing or discriminate against employees based on genetic make-up.

Third Party Retaliation Limits Case Decided by Supreme Court
In January of last year, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thompson v. North American Stainless, a retaliation ban limits case, stating that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a company can be sued for retaliation by terminating an employee's fiancée. The case arose after a former female engineer with North American Stainless, who was engaged to a metallurgic engineer at the company--claimed to have experienced gender-based discrimination and filed a complaint with the EEOC. The female engineer's fiancée was fired three weeks after her EEOC sex-discrimination complaint was revealed, whereupon the fiancée filed his own third-party retaliation claim. As Vincent Howard reported in our California employment attorney blog, the highest court decided that third-party victims of retaliation are covered by federal protections.

Charlie Sheen Sues for Millions
One of the highest-profile employment lawsuits from 2011 that garnered massive media attention was filed by Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen in March, who sued Warner Brothers Studio and Chuck Lorre, the executive producer of Two and a Half Men, in a $100 million dollars lawsuit--for wrongful termination, breach of contract, retaliation and other Los Angeles, California labor and employment charges. Sheen's contract was reportedly terminated for health issues that allegedly led to his inability to perform his duties for the television show, for public tirades against Lorre, and for alleged substance abuse and destructive behavior. Sheen and Warner Brothers reportedly finalized a multi-million dollar settlement in September.

Continue reading "2011 Labor and Employment Law in Review: GINA, Charlie Sheen, Walmart v. Dukes" »

In recent Los Angeles, California employment lawsuit news that our Costa Mesa attorney Vincent Howard has been following, a former employee of a California car dealership owned by John Elway, the well-known former quarterback of the Denver Broncos--is suing the dealership, claiming that minority employees were regularly subjected to racial discrimination, harassment and a hostile work environment.

According to the class action lawsuit filed earlier this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Timothy Sandquist, a former sales manager at Elway's Toyota dealership in Manhattan Beach, claims the he and other minority employees were frequently denied employment opportunities and promotions based on their race.

The California racial discrimination lawsuit names John Elway and his two business partners, and claim that Sandquist who was an employee of the company for eleven years, was paid less than his white colleagues and was frequently passed over for promotions that he was entitled to after many successful years of employment with the company--because he is black.

The lawsuit also claims that the general manager of the dealership, Darrell Sperber, created a hostile work environment for minority employees by saying ethnic slurs against black, Middle Eastern, and Latino employees, along with allegedly encouraging employees to say demeaning comments about non-white customers who chose not to buy cars. The discrimination and harassment lawsuit also claims that Sperber, who was hired to be the general manager in 2007, engaged in retaliation against any employees who reported the alleged racial harassment or discrimination.

Continue reading "Employee Sues John Elway's Los Angeles Car Dealership in Class Action Racial Discrimination Lawsuit" »

In a recent California disability discrimination lawsuit settlement that Howard Law's managing attorney Vincent Howard has been following, UPS Supply Chain Solutions has recently agreed to pay $95,000 after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found the world's biggest package delivery company responsible for illegally denying a deaf employee with reasonable accommodation in the workplace.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, deaf employee Mauricio Centeno worked at the UPS facility from 2001 until 2009 as a junior clerk in the accounting department. Centeno has reportedly been deaf since birth, and his primary language is American Sign Language (ASL). The EEOC investigation uncovered that during his employment with the company, Centeno struggled to understand written English language in the workplace, and continually asked for reasonable accommodation--in order to receive help from an interpreter for departmental staff meetings, training, and other work-related sessions.

Although aware of his hearing impairment, UPS supervisors continually denied Centeno's requests for reasonable accommodation in the workplace, and instead required that he attend the meetings, where he was reportedly counseled about his job performance without the aid of an interpreter. The EEOC found that although at times the company would provide Centeno with written notes and summaries, this did not adequately accommodate his disability--due to his lack of written English language proficiency.

The EEOC reportedly filed the disability discrimination lawsuit in 2006, claiming that UPS violated the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) by failing to reasonably accommodate Centeno.

As Vincent Howard of Howard Law has discussed in a previous Santa Ana labor and employment attorney blog, under the ADA, it is against the law to discriminate against workers who suffer from disabilities, and all employers are required by federal law to reasonably accommodate disabled job applicants and employees, unless doing so would cause a significant expense or difficulty for the employer.

Continue reading "UPS to Pay $95K in EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement" »

Our Costa Mesa labor and employment attorney blog recently covered the topic of religious discrimination in the workplace, while discussing a religious discrimination lawsuit that involved a Muslim security guard--who sued his employer for pressuring him to shave facial hair while working for a security company. The employee claimed that his facial hair is part of his Islamic faith, and under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the security company engaged in discrimination and retaliation by firing the employee for not shaving his beard.

In related California religious and racial discrimination lawsuit news, a Muslim Employee at the Human Assistance Department for Sacramento County, has recently claimed in an employment lawsuit that he has consistently suffered from harassment and discrimination based on race and religion since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

According to the lawsuit, filed last year, Abdur-Rahim Wasi, an African American employee, claims that since the terrorist attacks, he has been called a variety of discriminatory names including, "Taliban," "Osama Bin Laden," and "Al-Qaida." Wasi claims that the county managers have failed to stop the racial and religious harassment, and have even gone as far as to mock his employment concern. The lawsuit states that after Wasi filed an harassment complaint, his program manager proceeded to wear a Muslim head covering at a Halloween party in jest.

In his complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Wasi claims that six months after starting this job with the county in 2001, when the terrorist attacks occurred, his co-workers started questioning Muslims and harassing him by saying that he was a member of the Taliban. Wasi also reportedly endured other pranks and jokes over the years that were allegedly associated with his faith. When he reported the harassment and discrimination to his superiors, he claims that he was told that his colleagues were just joking.

Continue reading "California Muslim Alleges Religious Harassment and Racial Discrimination in the Workplace" »

In a recent Santa Ana labor and employment lawyers blog, Howard Law attorney Vincent Howard discussed a series of lawsuits filed against the popular Los Angeles, California-based retailer American Apparel, a manufacturing company that employs thousands of workers in the Los Angeles production facility, and in retail stores throughout the country.

In related news that our Riverside labor and employment attorneys have been following, American Apparel has agreed to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-filed (EEOC) disability discrimination lawsuit for $60,000, after the retail company was found to have violated federal labor laws for disability discrimination.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, American Apparel violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by firing a garment worker while he was on disability leave, failing to accommodate him based on his disability.

The EEOC and American Apparel have reportedly worked over an extended period of time to settle this case, and recently arrived on a three-year consent decree--whereupon American Apparel will adopt a comprehensive ADA policy, will agree to provide the retailer's managers and supervisors with ADA training, will ensure that workers are informed as to their rights under the ADA and how to seek ADA accommodations, and will designate an ADA coordinator in order to oversee the implementation of the decree.

Continue reading "American Apparel Settles EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit for $60K" »

Wal-Mart made California discrimination lawsuit headlines again last week, according to an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) press release that our Vincent Howard, our Riverside labor and employment lawyer has been following--for allegedly failing to accommodate a disabled employee, and wrongfully terminating his employment in retaliation, because of his disability.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, David Gallo worked as an employee for Wal-Mart starting in June of 2003, and was employed for six years for the retail chain, working his way from overnight stocker to manager of the tire and lube express bay in Placerville, California.

Gallo reportedly suffers from a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, which causes a shortness of breath and making walking difficult. In March of 2008, a new store manager reportedly refused to allow Gallo to park in the handicap parking spots along with any spaces that are close to the front of the Wal-Mart store--even through the company was aware of Gallo's heart disability and his handicap parking placard. Gallo filed a California disability discrimination charge with the EEOC in September of 2008, and was fired eight months later, allegedly for a mistake made by one of Gallo's subordinates. The subordinate and the inspector who reviewed the work were not, however, fired for their mistake.

As our Carson, California employment attorney Vincent Howard has discussed in a previous Santa Ana employment lawyers blog, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), discriminating against workers who suffer from disabilities is against the law, and employers must reasonably accommodate disabled applicants and employees. It is also against the law for employers to retaliate against employees for requesting an accommodation or for filing an EEOC discrimination charge.

Continue reading "Wal-Mart Sued by EEOC for Disability Discrimination and Retaliation of Employee with Heart Condition" »

In a recent Newport Beach, California employment attorney blog, Howard Law partner Vince Howard discussed the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the department's continuing enforcement initiatives aimed to uncover major noncompliance with the wage and hour requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Violations of federal labor law continue to be a common problem in low wage industries across the country, when employers fail to comply with the minimum wage, overtime payment and record-keeping provisions of the FLSA.

The FLSA requires that employees covered by the act are compensated with at least $7.25, the federal minimum wage, and receive overtime compensation for each hour worked beyond forty hours in a workweek, that equals one and one-half times their normal payment rates. Employers are also required to maintain clear employment records of employees' hours, accurate wages, and all other conditions of employment. Employers, under the act, are prohibited from retaliating against employees who stand up for their labor and employment rights.

In a recent initiative, the DOL investigated 46 restaurants in Long Island, NY, and recovered over $2.3 million back wages for 578 workers, and assessed over $200,000 in civil money penalties against the employers for repeatedly and willfully violating the FLSA.

Continue reading "DOL Continues Long Island Wage and Hour Enforcement Initiative to Stop FLSA Violations" »

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently discussed a sexual harassment lawsuit settlement, involving a class of female greenhouse workers in an Oxnard, California Orchid Growing Company.

According to the EEOC lawsuit settlement, that our Anaheim employment attorneys have been following, Cyma Orchids, Inc., one of the country's largest orchid growers, will pay $200,000 to settle the sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation charges due to national origin bias and sex--filed by the EEOC on behalf of the female Hispanic workers. The Orchid Farm's owner will also pay $40,000 to resolve the lawsuit.

The California sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit claims that a class of female workers were continually sexually propositioned and inappropriately groped by Hispanic and Korean male managers, supervisors and company owners. The female workers were reportedly groped on their breasts and bottoms, forced to endure sexual propositions, and were frequently the subject of sexual jokes and lewd comments about their bodies and their national origin. The EEOC found that the female workers who complained or reported the sexual harassment were retaliated against. A male lead worker in the greenhouse who defended one of the victims was also reportedly retaliated against, by being fired for standing up for a female employee.

As Vincent Howard has discussed in a previous Howard Law employment lawyer blog, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is illegal to sexually harass, discriminate or retaliate against job applicants or employees based on gender or national origin in hiring, training, firing, benefits, wages, promotions and other employment terms and conditions. According to the EEOC, sexual harassment can include advances of a sexual nature that are unwelcome, requests for sexual favors, and other sexual harassment in a physical or verbal form. The EEOC also states that harassment can include remarks about a person's sex or gender that are offensive.

Continue reading "Orchid Growing Farm to Pay $240K for Sexual Harassment, National Origin Discrimination" »

According to a recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, (EEOC) press release that our Rosemead employment attorneys have been following, a Los Angeles-area Medical Center will reportedly pay former female employees $530,000, to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging the sexual harassment of the female medical staff.

The EEOC investigation reportedly uncovered that from 2007 until 2009, several of the female employees of the Garfield Medical Center, located in Monterey Park, California, were targets of sexual harassment by a male emergency room representative, whose job was to admit patients.

The Garfield Medical Center was found by the EEOC to have allowed the male emergency room representative to sexually harass a group of female hospital employees by subjecting them to sexual propositions, unwanted inappropriate touching, obscene photos, discussions of sexual activities that were graphic, and sexual comments about the female anatomy, including those of patients who were underage.

After reporting the harassment, their complaints were reportedly ignored by the hospital management. One female employee was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for complaining about the harassment, while other employees were driven to quit in order to escape the hostile work environment. Even after repeated complaints to the hospital management, the male employee was not terminated from his job until 2009, over two years after the initial sexual harassment complaints were reported.

Continue reading "Los Angeles-area Medical Center Will Pay $530K in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Settlement" »

As our Riverside, California employment lawyer blog discussed in a recent post, last month, California State Labor Department investigators discovered staggering wage and hour violations at a giant warehouse that handles Wal-Mart goods. The investigators discovered that of two staffing agencies, supplying the temporary manual labor to the massive Mira Loma, California warehouse--operated by a Wal-mart-contractor, Schneider Logistics--failed to keep accurate records of how much money the low-wage workers were properly owed.

One staffing firm, Impact Logistics, Inc. was fined $499,000 for not properly providing itemized wage statements to the over 200 workers who load and unload Wal-Mart products into the warehouse facility. Impact was also issued a warning for neglecting to maintain time records.

Last week, California's Labor Commissioner, Julie A. Su, slapped the second staffing firm, Premiere Warehousing Ventures, with fines that total over $600,000--after state inspectors discovered that the staffing agency had engaged in multiple California wage and hour violations, including denying employees overtime compensation. According to the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), the company neglected to provide employees with proper wage statements, and failed to let them see their payroll records--as required by state and federal law.

According to Julie A. Su, California State Labor Commissioner, many workers also may not have received proper payment for all hours worked. Su claimed that the ever-increasing layers of subcontracting in warehouse work can make it difficult to enforce labor laws, especially when subcontractors make a deliberate effort to avoid labor compliance.

Continue reading "CA Labor Commissioner Fines Warehouse Staffing Firms for Alleged Labor Violations" »

In a recent Costa Mesa employment lawyers blog, our attorneys discussed the federal protections under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ADA)--where employers are required to reasonably accommodate the disability of a qualified job applicant or worker, unless the individual's disability causes the employer's business operations suffer an undue hardship.

In related news, this week a former employee of the Huntington Beach City Library, who is deaf, is suing the city after she claims she was wrongfully fired from her job as a library clerk--because of her disability.

According to the lawsuit, Merrie Sager, 32, filed a disability discrimination complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (FEHC) on March 8, stating that the Huntington Beach Library management team was no longer willing to reasonably accommodate her disabilities, and that her job termination was a result of retaliation--as she had repeatedly filed complaints about the ongoing lack of reasonable accommodation.

The Orange County Register reports that when Sager was first employed in 1978 at the library, she fully disclosed her disabilities to the city library, as well as her need for written instructions on work assignments, and the assistance of a sign language interpreter to help her communicate at staff meetings.

Continue reading "City of Huntington Beach Sued by Deaf Library Clerk for Wrongful Termination and Discrimination" »

Last month a group of workers at a Riverside, California warehouse that handles goods headed to Wal-Mart stores across the country, filed a California class action wage and hour lawsuit, claiming that they have been working under abusive conditions, after being regularly shortchanged on their wages, and required to work in a dangerous working environment.

Everardo Carrillo, along with five other low-wage workers from the Schneider Logistics-run warehouse, filed the class action lawsuit last month, claiming that they were consistently denied proper pay, and were forced to perform strenuous unskilled labor in extremely hot conditions. The workers claim that when they would question the total hours worked, after receiving less compensation than they felt they were owed, their bosses responded with the threat of retaliation, or with actual retaliation--by sending them home without pay, or refusing to give them more work the next day.

The lawsuit named Schneider and three of its staffing contractors who supply the temporary labor to Schneider's Wal-mart distribution facility. According to the lawsuit, the majority of the low-wage workers at the warehouse are Latino immigrants, who do not speak the English language, are unaware of their California employment rights, and have an education that does not go beyond the middle school level.

According to the California class action wage and hour lawsuit, most of the workers in the warehouse used to be directly employed by Schneider, earning an hourly wage of between $12 and $17 per hour, with employment benefits. Over the past five years, the workers claim that the proportion of direct worker hires in the warehouse declined dramatically to around 25%, with the hourly wages dropping as well. The workers are accusing the companies of enacting an unlawful employment scheme to depress the workers' wages through outsourcing and subcontractor layering.

Continue reading "Riverside Warehouse Investigated by CA Labor Officials, Sued by Workers for Wage Theft, Abusive Conditions" »

In a recent Los Angeles, California employment lawyers blog, our attorneys discussed the Los Angeles employment lawsuit filed by television and movie star Charlie Sheen against Warner Brothers Studio and Chuck Lorre, the Executive Producer of the popular television series Two and a Half Men, that featured Sheen as a central character until this spring.

According to news reports from last week, Sheen and Warner Brothers are finalizing the multimillion-dollar settlement that will end the very public battle that has continued over the past few months--after Sheen hurled public insults against Lorre for being fired from the show, leading to the cancellation of Two and a Half Men for the rest of the season.

Warner Brothers stated that Sheen's contract was terminated after health issues led to his inability to perform his duties as a performer for the show. He was reportedly fired in March for his failure to report to set and perform due to drug usage, for trashing a hotel room, and for his public statements against Chuck Lorre.

Sheen sued Warner Brothers and Lorre in March of this year, claiming that his television contract termination came from Lorre in order to serve Lorre's self-interest and ego--and accused Lorre of breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, retaliation and other employment charges. The lawsuit asked for $100 million in punitive damages.

Continue reading "Hollywood Star Charlie Sheen and Warner Brothers Settle Multimillion Dollar Lawsuit" »

The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) has recently awarded a California regional sales manager the largest administrative payment ever ordered in a discrimination case, after the disabled employee was fired while recovering from cancer.

Our Carson, California employment lawyers have been following the development of Charles Wideman's case, an employee who was fired while recuperating from cancer under the pretext that he wasn't investing enough time traveling to meet customers while working for the electrical supply company, Acme Electric.

According to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, (DFEH), which represented Wideman, Acme Electric must pay a record $846,300 in the California disability discrimination lawsuit for Wideman's losses--$748,571 for lost wages, $22,729 for out of pocket expenses, $50,000 for emotional distress, and a $25,000 administrative fine to the State's General Fund for engaging in what the California commission described as deplorable conduct.

Wideman was reportedly a veteran sales manager for the electrical company, heading Acme's largest sales region from February of 2004 until March of 2008, at which point his employment was terminated at the age of 59. Wideman went through surgery for kidney cancer in 2006 and then prostate cancer in 2007, returning to work within a few weeks of both operations, but had to reduce his traveling while he underwent further cancer treatments. Wideman reportedly requested accommodation for this period of time, that went unacknowledged and was refused.

Continue reading "Fired Cancer Survivor Receives Record $846K in California DFEH Discrimination Lawsuit" »

In recent news that our Costa Mesa labor and employment attorneys have been watching, a Los Angeles, a California judge has advised Nicollette Sheridan, the former star of the popular television show Desperate Housewives, to settle her wrongful termination lawsuit against ABC and the show's creator and executive producer Marc Cherry, that she filed last year.

This week, in Los Angeles Superior Court, Sheridan and her legal team were told by the judge that they were going to spend a lot of money on this wrongful termination case--urging them to settle.

The Superior Court Judge also limited the damages that Sheridan could receive if she would win at the trial--ruling that Sheridan can only ask for damages for one year of pay on the show, instead of the entire run of the series. The show will start its eighth season this fall, and it will be the show's last.

The wrongful termination lawsuit has also reportedly been pared down since last year, as the judge threw out Sheridan's harassment charges, and ruled this week that the television actress could not make reference to Cherry's alleged rude behavior in the trial.

Continue reading "'Desperate Housewives' Sued for Wrongful Termination by Hollywood Television Star" »