California Employment Lawyers Blog

In our previous Irvine employment lawyers blog, Howard Law attorney Vincent Howard discussed important California and federal labor and employment law cases from 2011.

In this Costa Mesa employment blog issue, Mr. Howard will continue in his labor and employment discussion, highlighting other key 2011 developments, including the EEOC's largest disability discrimination settlement with Verizon, the topic of suitable seating in the workplace, and the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) continuing crusade to curb wage and hour violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), among other high-profile cases from last year.

Verizon Pays Record $20M in EEOC's Largest Disability Discrimination Settlement
Last year, in the largest disability discrimination settlement in a single lawsuit in the EEOC's history, Verizon, the telecommunications giant, agreed to pay $20 million to resolve the EEOC's nationwide class disability discrimination lawsuit. Verizon Communications was accused in the lawsuit of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing to accommodate disabled employees and make exceptions to the company's "no fault" attendance plans--which reprimands employees if they accumulate a certain amount of "chargeable absences." The EEOC accused Verizon of denying reasonable accommodations to hundreds of disabled employees by either disciplining them or firing them when they needed more time off than Verizon's leave policy allowed--especially when the "chargeable absences" were caused by disabilities.

Wage and Hour Violations Hit All Time Highs
In 2011 the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) continued on its crusade to reduce workplace labor violations and wage and hour issues. According to the DOL, overtime payment is the largest wage and hour violation issue in the country, with thousands of complaints reported every year. In 2010, nearly 6,800 wage and hour lawsuits were filed, totaling about 700 more than the previous year, and the DOL forced employers to pay an estimated $176 million in back wages to employees. In the past five years, employers have also paid nearly $925 million in back pay and overtime wages to 1.2 million workers.

Continue reading "2011 Labor and Employment Law in Review: EEOC's Verizon Settlement, Suitable Seating, Employee Misclassification" »

As our attorneys recently discussed in a Westminster, California employment lawyers blog, a flurry of California retail chains such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target are being sued for failing to provide suitable seating for employees who are expected to work in positions that keep them on their feet throughout the day.

According to a related Associated Press article, two recent appellate decisions that allow employees to use California's Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) provision are leaving retail employers to face millions of dollars in monetary damages.

As our Riverside employment lawyers discussed, early suitable seating lawsuits were based on an Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) Wage Order containing provisions regulating working hours, minimum wage and other standard issues of employment, including suitable seating. The first two important appellate decisions that turned "suitable seating" into law were issued in November, with many new cases following thereafter.

In the Home Depot case, the retail store's lawyers argued that the provision wasn't a law because the passage reads as a suggestion rather than a binding law--that doesn't expressly prohibit retailers from neglecting to provide suitable seating. The court tossed out this argument, ruling that suitable seating requirements could be enforced by employees under PAGA, and employees are entitled to recover $100 per pay period for the initial violation and double that for each subsequent violation--penalties that add up for the California retailers who employ hundreds of thousands of workers.

Continue reading " California Retail Stores Hit with Flurry of Suitable Seating Lawsuits " »

In a recent Los Angeles, California employment law case, two Home Depot employees brought action against the home improvement store under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), for failing to provide suitable employee seating.

The plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and former and current employees, claimed that Home Depot violated an IWC wage order providing that employers in the retail industry are required to provide their employees with suitable seats when the nature of their work reasonably permits the use of seats.

Under Wage Order 7-2001, Section 14, which contains provisions regulating working hours, minimum wage and other issues including suitable seating--when employees' active duties are not changed, and the nature of their work requires standing, a reasonable number of suitable seats should be placed in proximity to their employment area, and the employees should be allowed to use these seats as long as it does not interfere with their work performance.

The employees claimed that although the cashier and counter areas within the 100 stores in California contain enough space for employee seats, Home Depot did not provided such seats--violating a wage order of the IWC. The plaintiffs sought to recover civil penalties from Home Depot under PAGA as well as reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Continue reading "Home Depot Sued for Civil Penalties in Suitable Seating Case" »