Archives for November 2021

There are a variety of benefits that are available to employees in California, and one of them is paid sick leave. Accruing paid sick leave and being able to use it is a benefit that, as we will explore below, the law established in California in 2015. If you are a qualified employee who meets the criteria, you should accrue paid sick leave through your qualified employment, and the leave will be available when you need it due to illness or related issues.

Some populations, however, are exempt from the law and may not be able to collect on paid sick leave like other employees in the Golden State. Read on to learn more about paid sick leave and how an employment attorney can ensure you collect what you are entitled to.

To Collect Paid Sick Leave in California, You Must Be Qualified

To collect on paid sick leave in California, you must meet the requirements to qualify. To qualify for sick leave, an employee must work for the same employer, so long as it began on or after January 1, 2015, for at least 30 days within a year in California. Paid sick leave began to accrue for employees starting on July 1, 2015.

Additionally, the employee must satisfy a 90-day empowerment period before taking any sick leave, which is similar to a probationary period. Qualifying for paid sick leave depends on first meeting the initial duration of time worked, while the period of employment must next meet the 90-day requirement.

What Employees Can Get Paid Sick Leave in California?

Knowing whether you are entitled to sick leave in California is important before beginning to collect benefits, and you can often determine this by the characteristics of your employment.

In California, all employees who work for the same employer within a year in the state have rights under the sick leave law enacted in 2015. This includes part-time, per diem, and temporary employees, in addition to full-time employees. Whether you are a full-time or a part-time employee, you will have the capacity to accrue and use paid sick leave in the state. If your employer takes any steps to try to prevent you from using such paid sick leave benefits, reach out to a local employment attorney to discuss what legal relief or compensation might be available to you.

Certain Employees are Exempt From the Paid Sick Leave Law in California

Most employees who meet the basic qualifications can collect paid sick leave. However, not all employees are eligible, as some are exempt from this law’s protections. The first population of persons exempt from the paid sick leave law is providers of publicly funded in-home supportive services, although only until July 1, 2018.

Union employees with specified sick leave provisions may be exempt from paid sick leave, depending on their collective bargaining agreement. Additionally, individuals who work for air carriers – including flight deck or cabin crew members – are exempt from the paid sick time leave if they receive compensated time off that is at least the equivalent of the requirements of the new paid sick leave law.

Independent contractors are exempt from paid sick leave requirements, as they generally do not have coverage under employment laws as employees do. Companies such as Uber and Lyft pushed California voters to overturn the law that required drivers to have employee status. Once Prop 22 passed, rideshare drivers lost their hope of employee status, which would have brought many benefits, including paid sick leave.

Finally, retired annuitants working for governmental entities will not automatically receive paid sick leave in California. If you are not sure whether you are in one of the exempted populations, discussing the facts and circumstances of your situation with an employment lawyer will identify your rights and how you can best uphold them.

Collective Bargaining Agreements and Paid Sick Leave

Collective bargaining agreements are common in the modern employment environment, especially with companies that want to operate outside of particular employment laws and regulations. When an employer uses their unequal bargaining power to pressure employees into accepting agreements that are not in their best interests, the agreements may not be enforceable, and those impacted may be able to recover damages.

The fact that your employer has a collective bargaining agreement does not mean it was bargained for the collective good of the employees. If your employer denies you paid sick leave, and you believe a collective bargaining agreement in place at your work is wrongfully causing this, you should learn whether you can take legal action.

Connect with a local employment attorney to discuss your case and determine what options might be available to you in terms of collecting on the lost value of paid sick leave you were entitled to.

Why Should I Hire an Employment Attorney?

If your employer denied you the benefits you deserve, your employer violated your rights, and the law provides remedies for those in this situation. Going against your employer personally can be stressful and intimidating, and also you can be at a significant disadvantage if your employer has experienced legal representation of their own.

Companies that avoid paying out benefits to entitled employees are often engaging in willful misconduct to the detriment of those who help them generate a profit. An employment attorney has experience working on similar cases and knows what damages are available to you and the process through which to collect them. An attorney steps in on your behalf and handles the stress of your day-to-day negotiations, and works to maximize the outcome of pretrial negotiations – or the outcome realized through court action.

Connect With a Local California Employment Attorney to Discuss Your Benefits

If your employer denied your ability to take paid sick leave despite meeting the eligibility requirements, you might be entitled to legal relief. Connecting with an employment attorney can help you explore your options, and if you have a case, collect the most compensation possible on your behalf.

Losing your job can be a life-changing experience that impacts all facets of your day-to-day lifestyle. When you think you have lost your job due to a wrongful reason, you may seek compensation for your lost earnings and other damages or even reinstatement to your position.

Many factors can show when a wrongful termination was wrongful. In this article, we’ll explain a protected class and when a firing decision violates the law. If your employer fired you because of your gender, age, sexual orientation, or a variety of other characteristics, you might be entitled to damages.

An employment attorney in your area can provide you insight into your case by applying local law and statutes to the facts and circumstances of your case and then take the right action to obtain the settlement or damages that you deserve for your wrongful termination.

What is a Protected Class Status, and What Protections are Available?

When firing someone – or making any employment decisions – an employer cannot take certain characteristics into account. Employers cannot discriminate against potential employees or present employees based on their race, color, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, age, or sex.

The law protects persons over 40 from employment discrimination based on age, whether deciding to hire or fire. Employers cannot make employment decisions based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or pregnancy status of an employee. The inability to discriminate based upon genetic information includes the family medical history of an individual.

Knowing which classes have protections can show whether or not your firing violated your rights as a member of a protected class.

Employers Cannot Use a Protected Class Status as the Basis for Termination

If you lost your job because of your protected class, you may pursue damages. If an individual loses their job because of their sexual identity, for example, and their employer terminated them after learning about this on social media, that termination was wrongful. Should a person lose their job because of their advanced age and higher pay demands because of their seniority, they may likewise seek compensation.

Identifying situations where you lost your job, specifically because of your membership in a protected status, can be difficult to determine clearly. Employers may present alternative reasons for the termination that seem rightful, obscuring an otherwise wrongful termination. An employment attorney who has worked on similar cases can assess the facts and circumstances of your termination and determine whether you might have a viable case for wrongful termination.

California is an Employment-At-Will State

California is an employment-at-will state. An employee or an employer can, at any time, unilaterally decide to terminate employment upon notice to the other party. If an employee worked for the company for a specified term, either party can terminate the employment when the other party breaches the agreement. Being in a state that follows the employment-at-will model makes it more difficult in some instances to collect damages for wrongful termination, as termination is wrongful in fewer circumstances.

If a Termination is Due to Retaliation, It is Wrongful

With the at-will element, employers can terminate employees for any reason, except one that the law would prevent due to discrimination or retaliation.

In California, an employer cannot terminate an employee in retaliation for the employee’s filing of a complaint of discrimination, their participation in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit, or their acts opposing discrimination such as threatening to file a charge or complaint of discrimination.

Employees who file complaints in line with discrimination laws have protections in their activities to ensure that companies comply with related laws.

Knowing whether your employer terminated you in retaliation for taking protected action in some situations can be difficult to determine. You do not have eyes inside of managerial meetings, nor do you know what they discussed as the topic in the meeting that led to your termination.

Having an employment attorney on your side is especially valuable in collecting evidence in support of your case. An employment attorney knows what questions to ask to determine what the influencing factors behind your termination decision were. If they were wrongful, your lawyer will know how to make the most of your damages.

Connect With an Employment Attorney to Discuss Your Wrongful Termination Now

A local California employment attorney with experience working on other wrongful termination cases knows the procedure to begin your claim. Discrimination is only one of several different bases for wrongful termination, and these include retaliatory termination, one that goes against public policy, or one that prevents you from exercising your rights.

Employers are generally ready to put up a fight against wrongful termination. They want to avoid liability or any possible reputational damage, so they will challenge your claim. You need an experienced employment attorney to handle your case.

If you are unsure whether your firing was wrongful, have a legal professional assess your situation, legal rights, and the best options to receive the relief you deserve.

On September 15, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit lifted an injunction that had prevented enforcement of two California statutes: Labor Code section 432.6 and Government Code section 12953. The Labor Code statute prevents employers from requiring their employees, as a condition of employment, to give up their right to sue in court for violations of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) or the Labor Code. The Government Code section makes it an “unlawful employment practice” for purposes of the FEHA if an employer violates the Labor Code section. 

Although the statutes are broadly written to protect the workers’ access to the courts, one common application would be in the context of forced arbitration agreements. Such agreements have become a fixture of the modern workplace, and employers frequently require employees, as a condition of employment, to waive their right to a court trial in the event of a legal dispute with the employer. Labor Code section 432.6 and Government Code section 12953 work together to protect a worker’s right to say “no” when an employer asks the employee to waive their right to a court trial as part of a forced arbitration agreement, at least for claims under the FEHA or the California Labor Code. If an employer discharges or refuses to hire a worker who properly exercise his or her right to say “no,” the anti-retaliation provision of the FEHA create an independent basis for a lawsuit against the employer. This gives the new statutes some “teeth” by empowering workers not only to assert their rights, but to hold companies accountable when those rights are denied.

Together, the FEHA and the Labor Code contain the majority of protections available to California workers. For example, the FEHA contains the principle anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-retaliation laws that protect California workers’ right to equal opportunity in the workplace. The Labor Code protects the rights to a minimum wage, and to overtime for many workers in California. Now, California workers have a right to say “no” when their employers want to force employees to give up their rights to have those claims heard in court. 

Businesses may yet appeal this issue to the United States Supreme Court, which would then have the final say on whether to invalidate these statutes as a matter of federal law. For now, California workers are free to protect their access to the courts. Workers should say “no” if current or prospective employers try to make them sign forced arbitration agreements, and they should contact an experienced labor and employment attorney if they experience any discrimination or retaliation for asserting their rights.