California employer retaliation

How Employers Can Prevent California Workplace Retaliation

June 16, 2023 | by Nassiri Law

As longtime advocates for fairness in the workplace, our Los Angeles employment attorneys primarily devote our energies to representing employees on the receiving end of inequity on-the-job. But there’s also value in explaining to employers how they can sidestep some of the most common issues that lead to California employment lawsuits.

Unlawful workplace retaliation is one of the most common sources of legal claims. It’s also potentially one of the costliest for employers. In a single recent years, nearly 6 in 10 claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleged retaliation, often in conjunction with other claims. It is the No. 1 type of employment discrimination alleged nationally.

What is Retaliation in an Employment Setting?

The term “retaliation” can have a few different meanings in an employment context, but it’s only illegal when it crosses the boundaries of state and federal fair employment laws.

In this context, retaliation occurs when an employer initiates a materially adverse action because an applicant or employee asserts or engages in rights that are protected under equal employment opportunity statutes. Such rights are referred to as “protected activities.”

Examples of protected activities would be things like:

Refusing to comply with a directive the employee believes to be discriminatory. (This requires only a good faith belief by the employee that the conduct in question is unlawful or could become unlawful if repeated. They don’t have to prove the underlying act was, in fact, discrimination.)
Filing a complaint of workplace discrimination (or indicating an intention to do so) regarding one’s self or other employees.
Refusing sexually-charged advances at work or intervening to protect others at work.
Requesting reasonable accommodations, as allowed by law, for one’s disability or religion.
Filing a complaint with management about equal employment disparities.
Gathering evidence in support of or preparation for a potential equal employment opportunity claim.

(This is not an exhaustive list, but provides a general sense of what might constitute as a protected activity as referenced in retaliation statutes.) Continue Reading ›

Sam’s Club Employee Sues for Transgender Discrimination

January 13, 2018 | by Nassiri Law

Last year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing put in place new regulations to protect employees from discrimination for gender identity and gender expression in the workplace, as outlined in the CA Code of Regulations, Title 2, sections 11030, 11031, and 11034. We are proud that California has always been on the forefront of such protections and our legal team continues to push for rights of groups vulnerable to workplace discrimination.

However, we know many people throughout the country remain a target for gender expression discrimination.

The attention of the nation is currently on Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which recently was sued by a transgender woman, who alleges she was fired after complaining to management about harassment she said she experienced on the job. She also filed charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to an article from Reuters, plaintiff worked for 11 years at a Sam’s Club (owned by Wal-Mart) in North Carolina. She claims to have endured harassment in her supervisor position in the company, alleging employees called her numerous slurs and her boss made unwanted physical advances. She alleges she was fired in 2015 after she complained about the hostile work environment, which she said had been escalating for a number of years since she began her female gender expression in 2008. Continue Reading ›

Lawsuit Against Yahoo for Employment Discrimination

October 18, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news article from the Silicon Valley Business Journal, a former media executive for tech giant Yahoo has filed an employment lawsuit in federal court claiming that he was wrongfully terminated and discriminated against by the company’s policies put in place by their CEO.

Specifically, this employee claims that after he was employed for three years as an editorial director at the company’s California location, he was wrongfully terminated in 2015. He said his termination was the result of a company-wide employee review policy that was consisted of intentional gender discrimination as well as a desire to save money by reducing the amount of money it spent on employee wages and salaries. After the current CEO was hired, she created a new quarterly review process to evaluate the performance of all key employees and make necessary changes in personnel based upon the result of these reviews. It was after one of the reviews that the employee who filed this was lawsuit was terminated. Continue Reading ›

EEOC Issues New Retaliation Guidance for Workers

September 28, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

For the first time in nearly two decades, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has revised its guidance on the issue of workplace retaliation. This is an important issue because retaliation is the most frequently-alleged basis of discrimination in federal lawsuits. It occurs when an employer fires, demotes, harasses or otherwise takes an adverse employment action in retaliation for a worker alleging discriminatory conduct.

The new EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues broaden and clarify the definition of what protected activities are. It also outlines the seven U.S. Supreme Court decisions on retaliation that have been handed down since the agency’s last update on the issue back in 1998. The new guidance notes certain expansion of retaliation rules based on changes in case law. Continue Reading ›