Employees have rights in the workplace. Any business in California that employs individuals must not infringe upon these important workplace rights or it faces serious legal consequences. Employer retaliation for legitimate employee actions is illegal and subject to the payment of damages for any harm caused by such action. Moss Bollinger is an employment law firm that works hard and diligently to protect California employees from any employer that acts as if it is above or beyond the law. Often, when employees assert their workplace rights formally or even informally, employers may retaliate to subvert these rights. Employers take this course of action to set a precedent, one undesirable in any workplace, to create a toxic atmosphere of fear to prevent such employee complaints from occurring again in the future. The attorneys at Moss Bollinger find this course of conduct unacceptable and will fight to make employers pay for encroaching upon the valuable rights possessed by California workers. California…Read More
California law requires all California employers to comply with all local, state, and federal labor laws. Employers may not plead ignorance of the law as an excuse for non-compliance since these laws generally hold employers strictly liable for violations. Thus, regardless of the intent of an employer, violations of California’s employment laws may have severe consequences. Most claims require employers to pay the attorneys’ fees and costs of a worker’s lawsuit if the worker prevails. Thus, a free consultation with the experienced employment attorneys at Moss Bollinger to determine your rights is a risk-free undertaking by any California worker who has experienced some illegal conduct by his or her employer. The following is a list of some California employment laws that employers commonly violate: Misclassification of an employee as an independent contractor One of the laws that employers have tried to usurp for decades relates to the classification of workers as either “employees” or “independent contractors.” In 2019…Read More
California employment laws provide some of the toughest and most thorough protections for employees in the entire country. These include the right to work free retaliation, discrimination, and sexual harassment. In spite of these laws, employees far too often find these important rights violated, and are victims of traumatic sexual harassment, discriminatory employment decisions, and retaliation for engaging in lawful activities. One of the questions that can arise in the course of lawsuit regarding employer misconduct is whether the employee’s supervisor received adequate training from the employer. In fact, state employers and private employers with fifty plus employees are required to provide training to supervisors. State employers have significantly higher training requirements than in the private sector. Supervisory employees are required to complete a mandatory 80 hour training that encompasses a broad range of topics, including the legal rights or employees and compliance with those laws. AB 1825, created in 2004, created a requirement that…Read More
For years, California and the federal government have provided Californian workers with strong employees’ rights laws. This includes wage and overtime laws. These laws were designed to protect workers from employers literally working them to death for pennies. Now, employees are guaranteed a minimum wage, rest and break rights, and overtime pay for when they work beyond 40 hours in a week. There are, however, exceptions to these laws. Some Employees are Exempt from Wage and Overtime Laws Exempt employees are workers who an employer does not have to provide minimum wage, overtime, or rest breaks. In other words, they are exempt from the legal obligations of wage and overtime laws. A sad, but predictable side-effect of having this loophole to wage and overtime laws is that some employers choose to abuse it. Skirting these laws allows them to get more work out of their employees while paying them less than they would otherwise get.…Read More
Employers don’t like it when their employees make complaints or cause trouble for them. These complaints cost money, take a lot of time and energy, and can harm the company’s reputation. It is even worse when the complaints against the employer are true. Unfortunately, instead of recognizing their own wrongdoing or violations, employers choose to take out their anger on the employees who have brought attention to their misconduct. What is Retaliation? Retaliation occurs when an employer engages in some form of punishment or adverse employment action against an employee for engaging in a legally protected activity. This punishment can take many different forms, such as threats by the employer or on the employer’s behalf, harassment and bullying, professional humiliation, threatening immigration action, spreading private information, attempts to damage the employee’s reputation, extra assignments, demotion, pay cuts, excluding the employee from training or the opportunity for promotion, and termination. Retaliation is a very serious subject…Read More
California law has some of the toughest laws that protect the rights of employees. Fortunately, this includes when you become injured in relation to your job. After all, you should be able to work with some confidence that you will not be hurt or disabled when working. And if you are injured, you should be taken care of. Under the Labor Code, California employers are required by law to provide worker’s compensation for its employees. This mandatory worker’s compensation insurance is a “no-fault” system which provides medical and disability benefits for those determined to have suffered a work-related injury. First, your employer must provide you with notice. When you start a new job, your employer is responsible for providing materials the clearly explain the your rights and duties, as well as your employer’s rights and duties when it comes to worker’s compensation insurance and claims. Employers must also display a poster that contains Worker’s Compensation…Read More
Wage theft occurs when an employer fails to comply with wage and overtime laws. These include a guaranteed minimum wage, breaks, and overtime pay when employees work long hours. An employer’s failure to abide by these laws is the same thing as stealing from its employees. Unfortunately, some employers who choose to violate their employees’ wage and overtime rights are good at disguising their misconduct. This makes it difficult for employees to know whey they are getting ripped off. Regardless of whether an employee is classified as “exempt” or makes commissions, California laws are very specific in how much an employee must make in salary, or must make overall with commissions; but for our purposes, know that no employee should be making less than the minimum wage per hour. And this is where employees get trapped: because some employers work these employees such long hours that their average hourly rate per hour comes out to…Read More
As an employee in the state of California, you have many legal rights and protections. One of these rights includes the right to a safe workplace. The California Labor Code Section 6400, which governs workplace safety, states that “Every employer shall furnish employment and a place of employment that is safe and healthful for the employees therein.” Further, Section 6401 states that: “Every employer shall furnish and use safety devices and safeguards, and shall adopt and use practices, means, methods, operations, and processes which are reasonably adequate to render such employment and place of employment safe and healthful. Every employer shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, safety, and health of employees.” As you can tell from the plain language of the law, employers have a high burden to protect you as employees, and a failure to do so can expose the business to significant regulation and liability. Workplace safety is…Read More
The holiday season is officially upon us. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s Day. What this means is excessive shopping, family gatherings, parties, and eating way too much. It also means arranging your work schedules to accommodate the holidays. In the midst of the seasons, you should be aware of your holiday rights as employees in California. Unfortunately, employment laws are mostly employer-friendly when it comes to holiday time and pay. Specifically: You are not entitled to days off on holidays. Businesses are free to remain open on any day that they choose, and are not required to close their doors on holidays. You are not entitled to extra pay on holidays. California law does not require employers to pay employees extra when they work on holidays. Of course, many employers wisely have policies that pay employees extra for holiday work. Creating such a policy is entirely in the discretion of the employer. If your employer…Read More
When you work, you should have a reasonable expectation that you are safe from violence and harm. Unfortunately, workplace violence is very real and needs to be taken seriously. In fact, employers have a duty under federal and state laws to maintain a safe workplace. In California, the legislature has implemented two major acts to specifically address workplace violence. California Occupational Safety and Health Act and Healthcare Employees The California Occupational Safety and Health Act is administered by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CAL/OSHA), which recognizes three primary types of workplace violence: The first type is injury or death that comes as a result of a work-related robbery. This may happen with store clerks, security guards, bank tellers, and taxi drivers. The second type of workplace violence is perpetrated by someone receiving a service from the victim. The legislature has recognized that healthcare providers, such as nursing assistants or psychiatric assistants are disproportionately…Read More
