California employees are protected from age discrimination in the workplace by federal and state laws. If your employer engages in age discrimination, they are violating labor law. California workers are also protected against retaliation for opposing workplace discrimination. What is California Age Discrimination? According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, age discrimination is treating an applicant or employee less favorably based on age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits age discrimination against people over 39. The ADEA doesn't provide the same protection for those under 40. Older employees can also turn to the federal Older Workers Benefit Protection Act to help protect their rights in the workplace. This act requires that employers offer employees 40 and older 21 days to review any paperwork waiving their rights (like a severance agreement). Employees are also given a whole week to revoke a severance agreement. What is Workplace Retaliation? Age discrimination laws protecting California job…Read More
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
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 Labor Code Section 2922 states that “An employment, having no specified term, may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other. Employment for a specified term means an employment for a period greater than one month.” Most employees in California are considered “at will” employees, meaning that employment can be terminated, or the employee can quit, at any time without cause. Despite that this concept sounds simple, there are times when an at will termination is improper and state and federal laws that protect employees from improper termination. Discrimination The California Labor Code is filled with specific protections against discrimination for employees based on their protected class. These code provisions make it unlawful to engage in discriminatory employment action, including termination, based on sex, gender, race, age, disability, country of origin, victim status, pregnancy, or breastfeeding, among many other categories. Retaliation The Labor Code also provides for protections against…Read More
