Orange County employment lawyer

Employment Lawsuit: Illegal Firing for Refusal to be Scientologist

May 3, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

A woman who practices Catholicism says she was wrongfully terminated from her job at a bottled water company in Nevada because she refused to convert to Scientology.

The employment lawsuit asserting religious discrimination alleges the worker was under pressure to watch pro-Scientology videos and was turned down for a pay raise when she did not show interest in switching faiths.

Based in Las Vegas, the company, Real Alkalized Water (also known as AffinityLifestyles.com) is owned by Nevada state Assemblyman Brent Jones, a Republican. His son, who is vying for an open state Assembly seat in the November election, is the executive vice president of the firm. Continue Reading ›

California Farm Worker Rights Bill Demanded by Activists

February 13, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

In two of the most critical agricultural counties in California, farm workers banded together with other low-wage workers in the food industry, demanding a “Bill of Rights” that would ensure higher wages and improved treatment.

The workers characterized the bill as a “rule of law” for these workers, who work extremely long hours for little money and are at very high risk of injuries and abuse. The bill is primarily aimed at addressing the struggles of workers in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, just north of Los Angeles.

Most of these problems stem from the fact that nearly half of these workers are undocumented immigrants, which means they live in constant fear they will be reported and returned home, where they may face not just crushing poverty but constant danger. So when they suffer abuse at work, they are more likely to do so silently. 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 ›

Rock v. Levinski – First Amendment Rights of Employees

July 28, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

One of the most dearly held rights Americans have is stated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: The right of free speech.

It allows us to speak our minds without fear of government infringement.

But that’s just the thing: It pertains to government infringement, not infringement by private companies. And what’s more, if the government is the employer, the worker may be limited in what he or she can say without facing termination as well.

The circumstances under which speech may be protected will be based on the kind and purpose of the speech. So for example, if a worker for an airline speaks out about a major safety concern that’s been ignored by company officials, that could be considered protected speech because it is carried out in the interest of public safety. That worker may even have whistleblower protection. However, if that same worker puts the airline CEO on blast on the worker’s social media page, that might not be protected, and the company could have the right to take adverse employment action. Continue Reading ›

California Workers’ Compensation Bill Leads to Debate

May 20, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

The workers’ compensation system in California is a very complex process. While it tries to take into account every possible contingency in such a way as to balance workers’ rights and need for quick access to benefits with employers’ need for a way to predict workers’ compensation expenses, from time to time the system will need a major overhaul to keep it up-to-date with changing times and economic conditions.

To this end, California state legislators and Governor Jerry Brown passed a piece of legislation, which provided for somewhat sweeping changes to the state’s workers’ compensation act about three years ago. Many saw these changes as favoring employers and insurance companies, causing a disadvantage to providers of medical care for injured workers and rehabilitation providers, and, in turn, harming many disabled workers, even though it was designed to provide more cash benefits to workers.

Since the bill was enacted, there have been reports of a five percent drop in medical claims associated with workers’ compensation petitions. This has undoubtedly upset medical providers around the state, and they have pushed for new changes to the state workers’ compensation act. A newly proposed piece of legislation entitled Senate Bill 563 aims to address their concerns. According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee, State Senator Richard Pan, a physician himself, wishes to take away some of the teeth from the utilization review required to approve any medical treatments as absolutely necessary prior to awarding disability benefits to pay for those medical treatments. 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 ›

Disgruntled Workers Haul Thousands of Petitions for Wage Increase to L.A. City Hall

May 10, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

It is hard to turn on the local news these days without hearing about the struggle for low wage employees in California and their fight for fair wages. We have seen strikes by truck drivers, pleas from restaurant workers, and now, according to a recent article from the My News LA, protests are bringing carts full of petitions for a minimum wage increase into LA City Hall.

Protesters have amassed cartloads of petitions signed by about 100,000 supports demanding city officials to raise the city minimum wage to $15.25 per hour. The $15.25 amount comes from one proposal for a minimum wage increase currently being debated in the legislature. Supporters and union leaders say there are about 700,000 Los Angeles residents who currently earn less than $15 per hour and need city officials to back the proposal, enforce the current law, and allow them access to earned sick days of which many workers are currently being denied. They are calling for a law with “no loopholes” and stress that, without effective regulatory safeguards in place, any minimum is meaningless if employers can continue to get away with routine violations.

Currently, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has created a proposal to raise city minimum wage to $13.25 per hour, which is what city council members are now considering, along with another plan to raise city minimum wages to $15.25. Those who brought petitions to city hall support this higher amount. The $13.25 minimum wage, if passed, would go into effect by 2017, and the $15.25, if passed, would go into effect by 2019. There is also a provision in both plans to include cost of living increases for future years to keep each respective law current in light of inflation and changes in the economy. 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)

Bailey v. TitleMax – FLSA Not Undercut by Employee Underreporting Hours

February 15, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

When a company knows or should know a worker is under-reporting his or her hours, the firm can’t use the employee’s role to diminish its own responsibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

That was according to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Bailey v. TitleMax. In its ruling, the federal appellate court reversed the summary judgment favoring the defendant company and remanded the case back to trial.

Had the court affirmed the earlier ruling, it would have allowed companies to wield superior bargaining power to pressure or even compel workers to under-report their hours, and then turn around and use that action as a defense if anyone complained. The Bailey ruling was an important one in furtherance of worker rights under the FLSA.