Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
According to a recent news report from the Los Angeles Times, workers at a golf course owned by President Donald J. Trump’s family business, and the workers of another luxury resort nearby have, through their union representation, filed a lawsuit against the city clerk after their proposed ballot initiation was not placed on the staff meeting for the upcoming meeting required to allow the measure on the November 2018 ballot.
This ballot measure would require all employees who work in remote areas of the property, or who are working alone, to be provided with panic buttons they could activate if they were the target of a sexual assault or in some other type of danger. The ballot measure would also require the employees to be paid at least a $15 per hour minimum wage as well as the provision of other related benefits.
According to state law, in order to get a measure on the ballot, there must be the required number of signatures from registered voters. After this, the petition with all signatures will be submitted to the County and they will place the item on the agenda for the next meeting. Even though these employees had the required minimum of 3,300 signatures, and potentially more, when they submitted them to the county, they were told the agenda had already been drafted for the next meeting so their measure would not be addressed until a later time. There was a meeting the following month, and while the clerk for the county seemed to indicate the measure could be addressed at that time, union representatives filed a lawsuit against the county.
If they are successful, a judge will force the county to place the item on the agenda at the next meeting so there could be public discussions prior to placing the measure on the ballot in the next election. With respect to the panic buttons, this was partly in response to allegations a worker was fired after she complained about being sexually harassed in 2016 at the resort. This particular case involving the resort, and third-party temp employment agency, and the worker was recently settled, but the fears of another incident involving sexual harassment happening in the future are still present, hence the need for a panic button.
As our Los Angeles County employment lawyers can explain, if you report a sexual assault or any type of sexual harassment, and your employer terminates you or takes any other type of disciplinary action in retaliation for you filing a valid complaint, this would constitute a violation of state labor laws and could be the basis for filing an employment lawsuit in Los Angeles County.
The same would apply if your employer took any retaliatory action in response to you filing a valid workers’ compensation claim, or any other type of claim against your employer such as those seen in what are known as whistle blower actions. However, these cases are always different as the facts differ so you should speak with an experienced employment discrimination attorney about your actual situation.
Contact the employment attorneys at Nassiri Law Group, practicing in Orange County, Riverside and Los Angeles. Call 949.375.4734.
Additional Resources:
Workers at Trump golf course and Terranea resort file lawsuit over ‘panic button’ ballot measure, June 20, 2018, By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times
More Blog Entries:
Three Things to Know About California Non-Compete Agreements, Aug. 3, 2017, Riverside Employment Lawyers Blog