employment attorney

Employment Lawsuit: Tiffany Worker Fired After Cancer Prevention Surgery

March 18, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

A woman once employed by Tiffany & Co. alleges the jewelry maker forced her out of work after she underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and breasts to avoid cancer.

Plaintiff filed a federal lawsuit asserting the company, based in New York, discriminated against her based on her age and gender after she had the surgeries, which her attorney described as “life-saving.” Prior to the surgery, plaintiff learned she carried a genetic mutation that put her at high risk of developing these specific type of cancers, according to BusinessofFashion.com. You may recall two years ago, Actress Angelina Jolie revealed she had surgery to remove both breasts and her ovaries after discovering she had this same BRCA1 gene. Jolie’s mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at age 56, while her grandmother died of it at age 45 and her mother’s sister died of the disease at the age of 61. Presence of the gene typically puts women at a 50 percent higher risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.

Meanwhile, plaintiff in this employment lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, says that while she is seeking damages, she said she wants people to know the company treated her as if she’d done something wrong after she took decisive measures to save her own life. Continue Reading ›

California Employment Lawsuit: White Men Paid More for Same Work at Tech Firm

January 16, 2017 | by Nassiri Law

A California technology company is facing down claims of racial discrimination against employees, who are the subject of a lawsuit alleging white men were given preference over minorities with similar qualifications.

USA Today reports the U.S. Department of Labor is suing Oracle America, a technology systems company that is accused of paying its white, male workers more than others and discriminating against non-white applicants in the course of its hiring and recruiting efforts. The DOL asserted the company is barred from engaging in discriminatory practices, especially because it receives hundreds of millions of dollars as a contractor for the federal government.

The company vehemently denies the allegations, arguing they are wholly without merit and motivated by politics. The firm is responsible for manufacturing much of the hardware and software utilized by federal government agencies. Continue Reading ›

Sikh Truckers Settle Anti-Discrimination Lawsuit

November 25, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

Four Sikh truckers in California have settled an anti-discrimination lawsuit against their employers who fired them for refusing to cut their hair to undergo a drug test.

In Sikhism, it’s part of a practice called Kesh that allows one’s hair to grow naturally as a matter of respect for the perfection of God’s creation. The idea is to live the way God made you. It is a tightly-held tenant, one of the five articles of faith of the Sikh religion. When refused to have have it clipped for the drug test, his employer fired him. One plaintiff called the incident, which occurred five years ago, “One of the hardest times of my life.”

Now, he and four other trucker applicants will split a $260,000 damage award to resolve allegations of religious discrimination in employment. Continue Reading ›

Hollywood Age Discrimination Target of Bill

August 21, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

California age discrimination is the target of a new bill passed by the state Senate that would allow actors and actresses to keep secrete their ages from certain websites. In particular, the Internet Movie Database, which is frequently used by casting directors in both the television and film industry, has been cited by actresses and actors who have been turned down for roles on the basis of what they suspect is their age.

Sent. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) is supporting the measure, AB 1687, by saying that older actors are often subject to age discrimination when they are seeking their next role. The bill is referred to as the Customer Records: Age Information: Commercial Online Entertainment Employment Service Providers. The bill was first introduced to the Assembly in April before being amended in May and then sent to the Senate, which has amended it twice, most recently Aug. 2, 2016. Now that the latest version has been passed by both the Assembly and the Senate, it now goes to the governor’s office for final approval – or veto.

Hertzberg cited the example of former “90210” actress Gabrielle Carteris, who was 29-years-old when she auditioned for the role of a 17-year-old girl. She landed the part, but the casting director said at the time, he didn’t know her age. If he had, he later said, he would never have given her the role. Hertzberg says this is a perfect example of how the easy accessibility of an actor’s age online can work against someone who is talented and otherwise qualified for the role. Continue Reading ›

Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highways Express – Associational Disability Discrimination

May 11, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

A sharply divided California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Eight, issued a decision allowing a plaintiff to proceed with his associational disability discrimination claim against his employer. This was a reversal of the trial court’s opinion in Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highways Express Inc., wherein a father alleged he was fired for his need to assist his disabled son.

This kind of “association” discrimination is outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which bars discrimination against an employee based on their association or relationship with an individual who has a known disability. The provision in 42 U.S.C. 12112(b)(4) means a company is forbidden from taking adverse action against a worker simply for associating with or having a relationship with someone who is disabled.

Under the ADA, companies are required to give qualified workers with disabilities reasonable accommodations. However, federal courts have held in prior cases (see Tyndall, 4th Cir. 1994, Overly, 6th Cir. 2006) that this association discrimination provision doesn’t mean workers are entitled to employment modifications in order to care for a disabled spouse or child. Continue Reading ›

Three Businessmen Arrested for Wage Theft in Orange County

May 18, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

It is a sad fact some unscrupulous employers will stop at nothing to make money, even when that involves taking advantage of their hardworking employees. According to a recent news article from Orange County Breeze, three employers were recently arrested and charged with stealing wages from their employees on a public works project.

Authorities say one businessman has been charged with four felony counts of conspiracy to take employee wages earned during a public works project, over 30 counts of taking employee wages on a public works project, 20 felony counts of tax evasion, 4 counts of conspiracy to commit a crime, and an additional 10 counts of conspiracy to file false or counterfeited documents. Continue Reading ›

Franchises Face Wage-and-Hour Lawsuits

February 28, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

Wage theft is a serious problem within many varying industries.

It’s worth noting there is an overall increase in wage-and-hour lawsuits, due to a combination of factors that includes workers becoming more aware of their rights, more active state and federal regulators and advanced technology that allows employees to conduct work remotely at any time of the day or night. Some of the litigation has focused on:

Misclassification of workers as salaried employees or independent contractors (ineligible for overtime pay or certain benefits)

Braun Electric Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit for $82,500

November 15, 2014 | by Nassiri Law

When an employee suffers from sexual harassment, it can take months, even years to reach a resolution. In most cases, a company will want to settle out of court to prevent costs of litigation and public exposure. However, some companies are willing to take sexual harassment cases to a jury if they believe that they can defeat charges.

In a recent California case, Braun Electric Company agreed to pay $82,500 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. agency charged with ensuring compliance with federal labor and discrimination laws.

Braun Electric provides industrial electrical services for the oil and gas industry throughout the California San Joaquin Valley. According to reports and the EEOC, a manager at the Belridge location subjected female workers to repeated instances of harassment, which created an illegal hostile work environment. Employees allege that the harassment took place since 2010. The manager made inappropriate sexual remarks and explicit propositions on a continual basis. Even though the employees reported the misconduct, upper management failed to adequately address the harassment reports and supervisors failed to property document and report the incidents that they had also witnessed. According to the lawsuit, one female employment was forced to quit as a result of repeated sexual harassment and the ongoing hostile work environment.