Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog

California Employment Rates Slowly Rising

August 28, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

We often hear about the unemployment rate when the economy is down. In good times like we are experiencing now, the employment rate in California has been rising steadily, and it’s important to note that too.

New data released by the California Economic Development Department suggests this trend is likely to continue, according to one recent article from the San Francisco Bay News.

Numbers released in July show the state unemployment rate has fallen to 6.2 percent. The previous rate for the month of June was 6.1 percent, so these numbers are slightly better, which is a good sign.

However, because to month-to-month fluctuations can and do happen without regard to the national and local economy, it is often helpful to look at year-over-year rates. Last year at this time, the California unemployment rate was 7.4 percent. Unlike the 0.1 percent rise we saw from June to July of this year, we can see that the unemployment rate has fallen significantly overall in the past year. Continue Reading ›

Former San Francisco Investigator Sues Prosecutor’s Office for Age Discrimination

August 25, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Age discrimination by employers is a serious problem in the state of California and across the nation. As the population is aging and people are working much later in life, the problem will only get worse if things do not change.

According to a recent news article from KRON 4, a former investigator with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is suing for age discrimination following her termination. Employee had been working for the prosecutor’s office since the summer of 1985. She claimed in her complaint she received numerous positive performance reviews and had been promoted five times before being fired. Continue Reading ›

Target Resolves Employment Discrimination Litigation with Large Settlement

August 22, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news story from Bring Me The News, big box retailer Target has just agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It was alleged the screening process for job applicants the retailer used was discriminatory.

The money collected as part of the settlement agreement will be given to the roughly 3,000 candidates who were allegedly rejected for higher-level positions with the retailer. The reason these applicants were rejected, according to EEOC, is because the test instruments utilized in the screening process were allegedly discriminatory against African Americans, Asians and women. EEOC said several of these tests were not even job-related. More specifically, it was not that there was one thing in these tests you point to and say was discriminatory, but when the results are reviewed in the context of the gender, ethnicity and national origin of the applicants, it was clear to EEOC that there was a discriminatory impact. Continue Reading ›

Dept. of Justice Fines Meat Producer for Employment Discrimination

August 18, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Harsh working conditions in the food processing industry are nothing new. The struggle of immigrants working in a meatpacking factory was one of the main stories in “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair.

One would hope though that in today’s modern era of regulation and an emphasis on workers’ rights, there would not be contemporary examples of unfair employment practices in this industry, especially for immigrant workers.

According to a recent article from Food Production Daily, a major beef processor has just been fined $200,000 for allegedly engaging in unfair employment practices. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued the hefty fine against the company after DOJ and the company had reached a settlement agreement to end the litigation. Continue Reading ›

A Look at the “Employment/Layoff Paradigm”

August 16, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news report from The Denver Post, there is a new “employment/layoff” paradigm at work in the United States, and it is blaming the victims of this system

The article begins with an account from a worker who was employed by a major corporation. This employee worked around 50 hours per week, and the company always paid overtime for hours in excess of 40 per week. However, this all changed when the company changed this employee over to an independent contractor following a routine layoff. Under the new contract, he was paid a flat rate for 37 hours a week, but the company still demanded the same level of work from him as it did when he was working 50 hours per week. In other words, they wanted to cut his pay and cut his benefits, but still get the same productivity Continue Reading ›

Uber Employment Lawsuit Challenges Independent Contractor Status

August 14, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

A class action lawsuit filed in California’s Northern District Court asserts the drivers who work for Uber are wrongly classified as independent contractors when in fact they should be employees.

The ride-sharing service, one of several to crop up in recent years, shot back with a motion asserting the workers are independent contractors, as they have little or nothing in common with one another, aside from having downloaded the company’s digital application at some point in the last six years.

In California, there are approximately 160,000 Uber drivers, and many hundreds of thousands more across the country. Drivers do download an app, which is then accessed by customers who need transportation. In this multi-billion dollar on-demand economy, there are numerous pending cases that question the classification of workers. Continue Reading ›

California Employment Rights Championed for Cheerleaders

August 12, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Professional cheerleaders are now recognized by California law as “employees,” entitled to minimum wages and overtime pay. It also provides them with sick leave, meal breaks and a host of other labor protections that are available to the team and other staffers.

Now, instead of classifying them as “independent contractors,” they are deemed “employees,” with all the rights and benefits that title affords.

The legislation that changed their status, AB202, was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown after being introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. She was motivated by a wage-and-hour lawsuit filed by the Oakland Raiderette cheerleaders. Gonzalez said short-changing women in any profession should not be tolerated, and cheerleaders were being treated as glorified volunteers. This was despite the long hours, extensive control the team had over almost every aspect of cheerleaders’ lives and the fines that were levied for minor infractions, such as gaining more than four pounds or forgetting to bring pom-poms to practice. Continue Reading ›

Allen v. Chicago – Overtime Pay for Smartphone Use After-Hours

August 10, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Many workers in this digital age are familiar with the pings and rings of their smartphones, alerting them to work-related issues after work hours. Most assume it’s simply a part of the job, and few file for overtime compensation related to these expected duties.

But that may change, depending on the potential precedent set by a case slated for bench trial this month. Allen v. Chicago, before the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, is one of the first of its kind to proceed to the trial phase. That’s because most similar cases are settled out-of-court before going to trial.

This class action employment lawsuit was filed by a police sergeant on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals who worked at the Chicago Police Department. Continue Reading ›

Burton v. Freescale – Retaliation for Workers’ Compensation Claims

August 8, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Employees who file workers’ compensation claims may run the risk of possible retaliation by employers who want to avoid paying the associated costs. The majority of states have laws that prohibit companies from lashing out against workers who have filed workers’ compensation claims.

Workers seeking to prove retaliation have to show:

He or she was an employee entitled to receive benefits under California’s workers’ compensation law;
He or she took some protected action (i.e., filing a workers’ compensation claim)
He or she suffered an adverse employment action (i.e., termination, denial of promotion, etc.)
The employer was motivated to carry out this adverse action by employee engaging in protected activity.

It’s not an easy threshold to meet, and that’s why having an experienced employment lawyer on your side can be critical. Continue Reading ›

Disney Accused of Racial Discrimination of Security Guards

August 6, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

In recent years, Disney World in Florida has been the subject of half a dozen similar lawsuits of discrimination on the basis of race, religion and national origin involving some of its 1,000 security workers.

So far, none of the cases has succeeded. A jury ruled against one plaintiff whose case went to trial, and three others were dismissed voluntarily by the plaintiff for either personal or financial reasons. But those who study employment law as well as those who practice it – both in Florida and here in California (home to Disneyland in Anaheim) recognize that six lawsuits over the course of three years – all by security guards and all for the same general reasons – alerts to a red flag of potentially a more serious problem. Continue Reading ›