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Archives for September 2020

Do I Have Any Rights Relating To How Companies Use My Personally Identifiable Information?

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What is Considered Private Information on the Internet?

Internet privacy involves how your personally identifiable information (“PII”) is handled by online companies, including how the companies acquire, store, sell, display, disclose, and otherwise use your PII.

PII refers to any information that can be used to identify you, such as age, physical address, name, birthdate, social security number, etc. Other forms of PII may also include non-specific identifiers such as GPS tracking data used by apps and software to track your behavior while visiting websites.

How is my Information being gathered by companies on the Internet?

Your PII is being gathered from the internet in various ways. For example, when you make an online purchase, many companies are storing your information from the online forms used to make the purchase. Same thing when you book a service using the internet. The companies then use your PII to target you with additional advertisements on similar products or services, and/or sell your PII to other companies.

In addition, there are companies that track which websites you visit and then use the information to send you advertisements based on your web browsing history. Similarly, companies are using your online presence to observe your behavior, such as browsing logs, search queries, and contents of social media profiles. Companies also “scrape” the internet to gather information about you, such as your photos for facial recognition. This data gathering, however, creates significant privacy concerns. Fortunately, as stated below, several laws provide you with remedies if a company misuses your PII.

What can I do if a company sold my private information without my consent or failed to keep my private information secure?

Several laws provide you with a right to privacy and control over your PII. For example, in order to provide you with greater privacy protections, among other things, most large organizations are required to:

  1. Inform you about when and how your data is collected and give you the right to access, correct, and delete information;
  2. Implement and maintain reasonable data security measures;
  3. Publish privacy policies and follow those policies;
  4. Obtain your consent prior to collecting, processing, using, sharing, or disclosing your PII; and
  5. Timely notify you of a data breach affecting your PII.

 

Similarly, organizations are not allowed to obtain or use your biometric information, such as your faceprint (from a photograph) or your fingerprint, without your express consent.

If you feel an organization has mishandled your PII in any way, you may be able to hold the company accountable for damages and penalties.

For more information or to schedule a complimentary consultation with an attorney who can help, contact Haeggquist & Eck, LLP online or call us at (619) 342-8000.

Can I Be Fired For Requesting an Accommodation To Take Care of Children Who Are Now At Home?

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Under the newly enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”), some employees are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of continuous or intermittent leave to care for their child because their child’s school has shut down and such employees cannot be fired for taking such leave.

The FFCRA requires private employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide employees who have been employed for more than 30 days with up to 12 weeks of Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) leave if the employee cannot come to work, or telework, to care for a minor child whose school or child care is closed or unavailable due to COVID-19. Section 5104 of the FFCRA prohibits employers from discharging, disciplining, or discriminating against employees who take this type of leave under the FFCRA.

California law also requires employers who employ more than 25 employees to provide up to 40 hours of leave to parents, guardians, stepparents, foster parents and grandparents, who give advance notice to their employer, to care for their children during a “school emergency.” A “school emergency” includes when a child cannot return to school due to a “national disaster….” One could reasonably argue the pandemic qualifies as a “national disaster,” requiring an additional 40 hours of leave on top of the leave provided under the FFCRA. Importantly, California employers are prohibited for discharging or discriminating against their employees for taking this type of leave.

If Your Employer Has More Than 500 Employees

For employees working for employers with more than 500 employees, an employer is not required to provide a reasonable accommodation for an employee simply because an employee’s child’s school is closed under the FFCRA. While Federal and California law require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant or disabled employees, an employer is not required to provide a reasonable accommodation for employees to take care of their children just because schools or daycares have closed. Accordingly, there are no legal grounds to request this type of “reasonable accommodation” and therefore the law does not protect employees from being fired for requesting this accommodation.

If, however, an employee’s child suffers from a serious medical condition, where the parent must stay home to care for the child’s condition, the employee may be able to request an accommodation under the FMLA or under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) based on the employee’s association with her disabled child.

Do You Need Legal Assistance?

If you have any questions about your specific rights to leave, please feel free to contact Haeggquist & Eck, LLP for more information and to arrange a free consultation with one of our attorneys.

Get in touch with us today by filling out our online contact form or calling (619) 342-8000 for help.

State Employees Affected By Wildfires May Qualify For Paid Administrative Leave

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Some California State employees may qualify for administrative time off due to wildfires due to an emergency order enacted by Governor Gavin Newson.

The Sacramento Bee reported on Aug. 21 that certain California State workers affected by wildfires may be eligible to take as many as five days of paid leave initially, while a maximum of 30 days of extended paid leave can be granted with prior approval of their respective departments.

These permissions align with the State’s regulations for administrative time off during a state of emergency, which are – in part – as follows:

  • Employees may be granted a paid leave of absence of up to five days by their appointing power when the employee works or resides in a county where a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor and the appointing power determines that at least one of the following conditions exist:
    • The employee’s normal place of business is closed temporarily, during the employee’s normal work shift, due to the effects of the emergency.
    • The emergency effectively precludes the employee’s ability to find reasonable routes of transportation from the employee’s normal residence to the work place.
    • The emergency presents an immediate and grave peril to the employee’s own safety, that of an employee’s immediate family member, or the employee’s principal residence.
    • The employee is actively involved in a formal, organized effort to protect the health and safety of the general public; such as, the employee is a member of the auxiliary fire or police department or the employee is asked by local authorities to assist with sandbagging efforts.
    • The employee needs to take time off to apply for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because the employee is unable to apply for assistance before or after the employee’s normal work shift.

For the full version of the state’s policy on administrative paid leave during a state of emergency, please read more here.

Do You Need To Fight For Your Leave?

Although some of the largest wildfires currently burning in California are far from containment, wildfire season in the state is usually expected to last through the fall. That means there is a risk that State employees may need to use their emergency administrative leave at a future time.

If you need to take legal action to protect your right to take leave during this time, consider reaching out to Haeggquist & Eck, LLP for legal assistance. We are a firm of employment rights attorneys who are on the side of workers who need to hold their employers accountable.

Should you need to seek fair and just compensation for leave you should have been afforded by your State employer during this time, please reach out to us to schedule a free initial consultation. During this meeting, we can learn more about your concerns and offers options for how you can proceed with taking legal action.

Learn more and schedule your free initial consultation by calling Haeggquist & Eck, LLP at (619) 342-8000 or by filling out our online contact form.

California Judge Grants Emergency Stay, Uber & Lyft Back off from Shutdown Threats

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Mere hours before rideshare hailing apps Uber and Lyft were willing to go dark in California over a judge’s order to classify its drivers as employees, an appellate court granted the companies a temporary reprieve from following the order.

And so, the rides continued – along with the companies’ refusal to consider rideshare drivers – who use Uber and Lyft’s apps to make money as de facto taxi drivers – as anything more than independent contractors. The status quo means the companies aren’t required to observe many important employment laws in California that would otherwise protect drivers’ rights to minimum wage, overtime, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, and worker’s compensation.

What spurred Uber and Lyft’s threats to cease service in California was an Aug. 10 injunction ordered by a California court that would have compelled the companies to begin reclassifying their drivers in the state as full employees by Aug. 21. At issue were lawsuits brought against the companies in May, alleging that they were violating AB-5 – a newly passed state law that adds a more stringent clarification as to what makes an independent contractor an independent contractor. As plaintiffs argued, rideshare drivers didn’t fit the bill.

The appellate court’s stay on the injunction, however, is contingent upon the companies prevailing in both their appeal and a ballot initiative to repeal AB-5 in November. By Sept. 4, the CEOS of both Uber and Lyft are required to submit to the appellate court a 30-day implementation plan to comply with AB-5 and reclassify their independent contractors as full-fledged employees.

Should the companies fail in their endeavors, however, it’s possible that many drivers who use the apps to generate extra income may be kicked off the app as a virtual form of at-will termination. It’s also possible that Uber and Lyft may just make do on their original threats to cease service in California and even move their headquarters to states they deem more friendly to their business models.

Do You Need Legal Assistance?

Haeggquist & Eck, LLP fights for workers when their employment rights are violated. If you are currently classified as an independent contractor and believe you should be reclassified under the provisions of AB-5, we can help you fight for what you deserve.

Our employment law attorneys can help clients like you recover fair and just compensation in damages against your employer in a successful lawsuit. Learn more about how we can assist you and if an experience attorney believes you may have a valid claim by reaching out to us for a free consultation.

Take advantage of this complimentary meeting with our attorneys by scheduling yours today. Call Haeggquist & Eck, LLP for help at (619) 342-8000 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch.

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