Recent Blog Posts
California Clarifies What Hours Construction Workers Must be Paid For
The California Supreme Court recently provided some guidance to employees and employers, as to what hours are compensable and what aren’t. The result is somewhat of a mixed bag, but at least, there is some clarity for those who work in the construction field. Work Before or After Work The issues in the case… Read More »
Can You be Punished for Testifying Against Your Employer?
Let’s say that you are at work, minding your own business, and then it comes: you get a notice that you are being called to testify as a witness. That’s not a problem, except for one thing: the Defendant being sued is your employer, meaning that someone has subpoenaed you to provide testimony against… Read More »
What and Who Are Exempt Employees Under the FLSA?
If you are a worker in California, you have the right to be paid for the hours that you work. And, most importantly, the right to be paid extra for any hours that you work as overtime, generally described as more than 40 hours a week. That is all pursuant to the Fair Labor… Read More »
How Much Do You Need to Tell Your Employer About Your Disability?
If you have a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and you need accommodations for your disability in the workplace, you may have a problem, or at least, a dilemma. On the one hand, you certainly need to tell your employer about your disability, and the nature of your limitations, so your… Read More »
Visual Harassment in the Workplace
If you’re in the workplace and people say things to you that are demeaning, insulting, lewd, or harassing, you may know you’re a victim of workplace harassment. The same goes, of course, if there is any unwanted touching, or perhaps, coercion to engage in sexual or romantic activity as a condition of working there…. Read More »
Recognizing LGBTQ Harassment in the Workplace
Both federal and California law protect LBGTQ workers from discrimination and harassment in the workplace, albeit California’s state laws are broader, and do provide more protection than federal laws. But while workplace rights and protections for the LBGTQ community are continually increasing, that doesn’t make discrimination cases against the LBGTQ community any easier. Hard… Read More »
Salaried Workers and Overtime Pay: How Does it Work?
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires, among other things, that workers get paid overtime pay, for any hours worked weekly, over 40 hours a week. With per-hour, hourly paid workers, this is often easy to compute: Just see how many hours a worker has worked, see if it’s over 40 hours, and see… Read More »
How Long Can Your Employer Wait to Pay You?
For many employees, their relationship with their employer is a good one. This is especially true in smaller companies, where the company can seem like a “family,” and where supervisors or owners may also be friends or people that employees have grown close to. When these kinds of companies fall on hard or slow… Read More »
The Supreme Court is About to Answer a Big Question on Reverse Discrimination
Most of us already know that discrimination or harassment in the workplace based on a protected classification such as race or nationality or religion, among other categories, is illegal. But does that include all races, nationalities and religions—even so-called “majority” ones? What is Reverse Discrimination? That’s the issue that the Supreme Court is set… Read More »
The ADA and the Essential Functions Test
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) generally says that if you have a disability, your employer must make accommodations in your workplace to allow you to do your job. You can’t be punished, fired, harassed, or discriminated against because of your disability. When Accommodations Won’t Help But sometimes, an employee is disabled so severely,… Read More »
