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Employment Law

9th Circuit docket: Coddling criminal harasser may backfire

11/01/2017
A jury will get to determine if an employer’s perceived preferential treatment of an alleged rapist created a hostile work environment for the female employee who reported the rape.

San Jose Chipotle sued for female-on-male sex harassment

11/01/2017
If the facts alleged in a recently filed EEOC lawsuit turn out to be true, food wasn’t the only spicy item on offer at a Chipotle restaurant in San Jose.

L.A. nightclub accused of pregnancy discrimination

11/01/2017
L.A. Lousianne, a Los Angeles jazz club, is headed to court after the EEOC filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Wage & Hour admin nominee clears key Senate committee

11/01/2017
Cheryl Stanton is one step closer to becoming administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Offering employee investment? Track response or lack thereof

11/01/2017
Sometimes, you may want to offer certain highly skilled, key employees an opportunity to acquire an equity stake in the business. Be sure to have your attorney draft the contract. Then follow up by documenting either the employee’s signature or her objections and lack of agreement.

Public policy claim gives new life to bias suit

11/01/2017
Under California state law, an em­­ployee can allege a public policy wrongful discharge claim against her employer for some form of discrimination even if she can’t pursue a direct discrimination claim.

‘Manspreading’: Obnoxious, but not necessarily harassment

11/01/2017
While some behavior may make others uncomfortable, that doesn’t automatically mean the offended worker has a sexual or other harassment case.

Receiving a poor performance review: Not necessarily harassment

11/01/2017
Here’s some good news for HR professionals and supervisors trying to manage the workforce: You don’t have to worry that ordinary functions like putting together performance reviews and making hiring and firing decisions will somehow be misconstrued as harassment.

ADA and FEHA: Always document interactive discussion process to find accommodations

11/01/2017
The presumption is that by discussing possible accommodations, the employer and worker will arrive at some sort of consensus. Employers that don’t take this seriously risk being sued for failing to engage in the interactive accommodations process.

Beware oral contracts on top of written ones

11/01/2017
Think a simple written employment contract precludes other oral contracts? Think again. It is quite possible in California for an employee to win an oral contract claim despite an apparent written contractual agreement that seems to preclude just that, as a recent case shows.