Interviewing for a new job can be a nerve wracking experience. You want the job, you need the money, you are nervous, and you want to make a good impression. In essence, you know that you will do great if they just give you a chance. Something that makes the interview process takes a turn into uncomfortable territory, and you leave feeling disrespected and confused. Take, for example, when professional sports teams ask potential draft picks about their sexual orientation. The fact is, not only are certain interview questions offensive, they are also unlawful. Discriminatory Questions Prohibited First and foremost, state and federal laws protect numerous classes of people from employment discrimination based on their protected status. This includes sex, race, color, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV/AIDS status, political affiliation, military status, or status as a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault. It is unlawful for an employer to fail…Read More
Being disabled is not a choice, nor should it ever be held against you. In reality, having a disability does not mean you cannot work, nor does it remove your qualifications in your career. In fact, people with disabilities are part of a protected class of people, who employers are legally prohibited from discriminating against. Under state and federal laws, employment discrimination occurs when an employer considers a person’s disability (actual or perceived) and exposes the person to adverse decisions or treatment based on the disability. California Offers Strong Protections California defines disabilities as conditions that limit a major life activity of a person and may include physical disabilities, mental disabilities, certain medical conditions, and age-related disabilities. This goes beyond federal law and therefore offers California employees greater protection from discrimination. Essentially, employers are required to evaluate applicants on their merit, on their qualifications, and not on their disability. In addition, an employer cannot ask…Read More
If you are a Technician for Terminix, then the following employer reviews from Indeed.com—from prior Terminix technicians—may sound very familiar: One summed up his experience with one word: “refuel” and described his job as follows: “check out my truck oil, brakes, tires, write down miles. meet a office 645am i am ALWAYS early. print my work orders for the day. load my truck with material for todays work order. call the customer to make sure the property is accessible. Another wrote: “They won’t work with you and they pretend to be your friends during your interviews and make you want to work with them, but once your in they work your to the bones . Go in at 8:00am to 8:00 pm . You don’t get to have a lunch cause you have stops back to back to back.” And another unhappy former Technician wrote: “They don’t care about you or what you got going…Read More
The state of California is a good place to be employed. This is because the law and the courts take the rights of employees seriously. The California Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a set of laws that builds upon federal wage and overtime laws of the same name. These laws provide the bare minimum when it comes to wages, hours, record keeping, and break rights. However, not all employees are protected by these rights. There are “exempt” employees for whom employers do not have to comply with minimum wage, overtime, and break laws. These include certain “executive”, “administrative”, “professional”, computer professionals, and outside sales people. To qualify, their actual job duties and responsibilities, their ability to make their own decisions, as well as their salaries, must comply with the relevant wage order. Far too often, employers misclassify employees as “exempt”. This benefits these employers as they are not paying the misclassified employees overtime, keeping…Read More
If you work in California, you are fortunate to have some of the strongest legal rights in the entire country. For most employees, this involves wage and overtime rights to stop employers from abusing workers with long hours and low pay. This includes a minimum wage, overtime pay when working over 40 hours, the right to take breaks, and the right to claim unemployment benefits. There are, however, exceptions to these laws, including a massive exception regarding people who are classified as independent contractors, or self-employed. These people are not considered employees under the law and therefore wage and overtime laws do not apply to them. Sadly, the line between an employee and an independent contractor is dangerously thin—and questions must be raised as to whether employers are skirting the law with people who are actually employees. There is, in fact, a whole lot of abuse when it comes to this classification, and employers rely…Read More
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all part of one big package that define the American experience. The ability to make our own choices are part of what sets our country apart. Unfortunately, when we work for an employer, we voluntarily give up some of our choices and must follow our employers policies, work hours, and procedures. This is what we sign up for in exchange for getting paid. There are, however, limits to the control that an employer can impose on your choices. One question that we frequently get involves an employer’s ability to dictate what you do on your own time. Specifically, can your employer limit your ability to make money outside of your work hours? Moonlighting Is Generally Protected Activity Moonlighting refers to the act of working a second job on the off hours of your primary employment. This can include a really wide range of money-making endeavors, like self-employment,…Read More
You work hard and you want to do your best at work. However, we all have our limits and need breaks. If you look at other countries, like Japan, you will see that there is a culture of “death by overwork” in which the physical and emotional strain of working non-stop has actually caused a lot of workers to die. In America, employees generally have legal protections from that; however, that doesn’t stop some employers from trying to overwork its employees. If you are a “non-exempt” employee, California law mandates that employers allow you rest breaks. California’s Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order, Section 12 states that “every employer shall authorize and permit all employees to take rest periods, which insofar as practicable shall be in the middle of each work period.” The wage orders look at work hours in four hour increments and authorize ten minutes of rest for each four hour block or “major fraction” of…Read More
You work for your employer in order to make money for your family. In other words, if you choose to spend your time volunteering, you would rather do it volunteering for your church, or Habitat for Humanity, or the Red Cross. Unfortunately, when employers make employees work “off the clock”, that is exactly what they are doing—forcing their employees to volunteer their time. This is unlawful under California’s wage and overtime laws. Working Off The Clock Non-exempt employees are entitled to compensation for every hour they work, to a minimum wage for each of those hours, to overtime compensation when they work more than eight hours in a workday, and to double wages when they work more than twelve hours in a workday. Employers try to get around these laws—and around having to pay overtime—by knowingly compelling their employees to work without pay. Some examples of working off the clock include Not paying an employee…Read More
In my practice, I’ve too often found that employers fail to fully grasp how to respect the legal rights of disabled employees. If you have a disability and want to work, it is therefore important to be aware of these rights so that you can demand to be treated lawfully. Protection From Discrimination People with disabilities are part of a protected class under federal and California’s discrimination laws. In California, where disabilities are broadly defined to encompass both physical and mental disabilities, it is unlawful for employers to engage in discrimination against disabled employees or job applicants. This means that an employer cannot make adverse employment decisions based on a person’s disability, history of disability, or perceived disability. For example, an employer cannot ask a job applicant about the applicant’s disability, or subject the applicant to medical or psychological testing that other applicants are not subjected to. Right To Reasonable Accommodations California’s Fair Employment and…Read More
State and federal laws have long-established wage and overtime laws to protect the rights of working class American employees. These laws include a minimum wage and the right to overtime pay when an employee is made to work more than 40 hours in a workweek. There is however, a loophole for employers when it comes to certain types of employees, known as “exempt” employees. What Are Exempt Employees? The term exempt refers to the fact that these employees are exempt from wage and overtime laws. For these employees, employers are not legally required to pay overtime wages when the employee works for more than 40 hours and does not have to provide meal or rest breaks. There are three basic categories of employees who may qualify as exempt under the law: exempt executive employees, exempt professional employees, and exempt administrative employees. The underlying idea is that these are employees who exercise critical job functions, exercise…Read More
