Pasadena Employment Lawyer

Being discriminated against at work or terminated for illegal reasons can be a traumatizing experience. However, in California, you may be entitled to seek legal action to receive compensation for the damages you incurred due to the unfortunate experience. If you have faced illegal unfairness in the workplace, an employment lawyer can help.

The legal framework between employers and employees is very intricate. We offer legal counsel and representation on a variety of workplace concerns. Our law firm supports workers in their claims related to discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, wage and hour issues, and retaliation. We can make sure that your rights are protected as we pursue legal recourse in the process that is most appropriate for you.

We can look at the details of your case and develop the most advantageous course of action. If your case ends up going to trial, we can represent you in court. Our experienced team of Pasadena employment lawyers can advocate for your rights to help you receive the damages you deserve.

California is considered an at-will employment state, much like many other states, which means that employers are free to terminate employee relationships for almost any reason. You may, however, file a wrongful termination claim in order to be compensated if this firing is illegal under state or federal law or if it goes against public policy.

In addition to this, being mistreated or discriminated against based on being a part of a protected class is prohibited in California, as well as throughout the rest of the country. An employment law firm can help you seek damages if you have been discriminated against or wrongfully terminated. Some situations that an employment lawyer can help you with include:

• Sexual harassment
• Whistleblowing retaliation
• Wage and overtime violations
• Workplace discrimination
• Wrongful termination

An attorney can help you with the following:

• Receiving compensation for damages
• Providing guidance on your rights
• Representing you in court
• Performing workplace investigations
• Reviewing, drafting, and filing legal documentation
• Negotiating settlements or severance packages with your employer

Both federal and state statutes make it illegal to discriminate against an employee in the workplace based on certain characteristics, such as race or gender. In California, these protected classes include the following:

• Race
• Religion
• Sex
• Gender
• Ancestry
• Pregnancy
• Sexual orientation
• Medical condition
• Political associations
• Veteran status
• Disability
• Age

Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms, both overt and subtle. Some examples of this could look like:

• Unfair interviews. This includes asking questions about race, gender, religion, or other protected characteristics that are not relevant to the job.
• Being denied a promotion. This happens when one person who is qualified for a promotion is denied, and the promotion is given to a person who is less qualified based on certain characteristics, such as denying a woman a promotion and giving it to a man based on that fact alone.
• Unequal pay. This happens when workers with the same qualifications and doing the same work are being paid differently because of their gender, color, or other protected characteristics.
• Different benefits. Offering different benefits or denying benefits to certain employees based on their class, such as offering younger people benefits but denying them to older employees.
• Assigning unfair jobs. This involves assigning less desirable or more hidden jobs to certain employees. An example of this could be only allowing one race of employees to have visible jobs, and any foreign employees are given jobs where they are not seen or giving them jobs that are not desirable, regardless of qualifications.
• Segregation. This includes keeping employees of certain races, genders, or other protected groups in specific job roles or departments away from everyone else, such as assigning them different bathrooms or work areas. This can also include exclusion from social and professional events.
• Exclusion: Excluding certain employees from meetings, training, or social events because of their protected characteristics.
• Unfair work conditions: Imposing unfair work conditions, such as excessive scrutiny or unrealistic workloads, on certain employees due to discrimination.
• Harassment. This can include verbal abuse, physical harassment, sexual harassment, and creating a hostile work environment for those in a protected class. Examples of this include derogatory comments, slurs, crude jokes, physical contact, threats, or any otherwise offensive behavior that would prevent a person from performing their job functions to their optimum ability.
• Unfair discipline. This can involve disciplining employees more harshly or more frequently, or for more minor offenses, than others based on their protected characteristics.
• Wrongful termination. This involves firing someone based on their protected class, such as firing a pregnant employee because they became pregnant.
• Retaliation: This includes taking action against an employee for filing a complaint, or otherwise whistleblowing, against unfair practices in the workplace, such as demoting them, reducing their hours, harassing them, or giving them unfair performance reviews, especially if they never had negative reviews before.

In order to ensure that your employer is handling all issues and concerns in a lawful manner, California has labor laws in place. These laws cover protections for workers, including wages, breaks, and other protections. Some of these rights include:

• Providing reasonable accommodations. The California Fair Housing and Employment Act requires employees to provide reasonable accommodations to those under certain circumstances. Some of these include pregnancy accommodations, breastfeeding accommodations, disability accommodations, and religious accommodations.
• Equal pay. In California, it is illegal to pay compensation based on factors such as sex, race, or ethnicity to people who perform substantially identical labor. However, an employer may use a legitimate reason other than sex—such as seniority, merit, the caliber or amount of output, education, training, or experience—as a defense against a wage discrimination claim.
• Whistleblower protection. Employers are not allowed to establish or implement policies in California that forbid workers from reporting misconduct or that punish workers for reporting it. This includes workers who used their right to report misconduct during a prior job or who declined to engage in any actions that might violate local, state, or federal laws or regulations.An employee who reveals information to a government or law enforcement agency on violations of local, state, or federal laws, rules, or hazardous working conditions with reasonable cause is known as a whistleblower.
• Wage and hour standards. California has wage and hour laws in place to ensure that workers receive fair wages. There are minimum wage requirements that state that employers must not pay their workers below a certain amount. Also, employees must be paid overtime pay if they are working at their jobs more than 40 hours in a workweek and eight hours in a workday. Overtime pay is one and a half times the rate of regular pay.
• Whistleblower protection. Employers must provide employees with rest breaks, which should be ten minutes (paid) for every four hours worked. Employees are also entitled to meal breaks, which must be at least 30 minutes long for every five hours worked. Those who are breastfeeding are also entitled to breastfeeding breaks to express milk. They must be provided with a private location to do so.
• Leaves of absence. Important guidelines pertaining to vacation time and leaves of absence must be followed by employers. For qualified military emergencies, a family member’s medical condition, or an employee’s own significant health condition, employers with five or more employees should offer up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period.California also provides Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits, which replace a portion of an employee’s income while they care for a critically ill family member or form a relationship with a new child in the family. Employers must also provide paid sick leave, which entitles qualified workers to utilize up to 40 hours annually for preventive care, personal illness, or seeking support for issues relating to sexual assault, domestic abuse, or stalking.
• Safety and health. A written, effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program that includes, among other things, training on safe workplace practices must be developed and maintained by a California employer in order to comply with the California Occupational Safety and Health Act (Cal/OSH Act), which mandates that employers provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for their employees.

Due to the fact that California is an at-will employment state, either party may end an employment relationship at any time, for virtually any reason, and with or without prior warning. Some companies have interpreted these regulations to indicate they have total authority to fire employees for any reason. State and federal laws, however, forbid terminating an employee for an unlawful purpose or for wrongful termination. Employees who were wrongly fired are entitled to file a civil lawsuit against their employers for this conduct.

According to California labor law, there are a few exceptions to the general at-will employment norm. Terminating an employee in a way that falls outside of these exceptions is deemed wrongful termination. Exceptions to these include:

• Good faith and fair dealing. The responsibility of good faith and fair dealing may be broken by an employer who behaves unfairly. Both parties have agreed to an implicit agreement where they would not do anything that would prevent the other party from receiving advantages under the terms of the contract or make it difficult for the other party to fulfill its end of the bargain.Examples include misrepresenting to workers the possibility of promotions or pay increases, terminating them in order to hire a new worker at a lower salary and fabricating an excuse to hide the real reason, downplaying the drawbacks of a position, and persistently making an employee perform unpleasant tasks in order to get them to leave without taking advantage of their rightful benefits.
• Contract breach. A formal or implicit employment contract is regarded as legitimate. A formal employment contract or other assurance of job stability provides compelling evidence that your work is not subject to arbitrary termination. Offers that state that a worker will be kept on staff or specify the disciplinary actions that must be completed before they can be fired are examples of written agreements.An employment agreement that is understood by both parties—even if the parameters are not explicitly stated in a formal document—is referred to as an implied contract.An implicit agreement to refrain from terminating an employee without good reason may be expressed by the issuance of an employee handbook outlining the grounds for termination or by promising to safeguard their job should they refrain from engaging in specific behaviors.
• Policy violations. An employer that fires an employee for refusing to assist in the commission of criminal acts that would be viewed as socially objectionable or because the employee fulfilled a legal responsibility is in breach of public policy and constitutes wrongful termination.This includes firing a worker for bringing a workers’ compensation claim, informing OSHA of a workplace safety hazard, disclosing information about the company’s refusal to pay earned wages and benefits, or taking time off to fulfill civic obligations like serving in the military, voting, or serving on a jury.Whistleblower retribution, or being fired for informing government authorities or law enforcement agencies about a company’s illegal conduct or wrongdoings that could negatively impact the public, is another instance of breaking public policy.

In the event that your company does not provide an exception to the at-will employment policy, you may file a wrongful termination claim against them if any of the following occurred during the time of your firing:

• Political-related activities: In California, employers are not allowed to restrict or control the political speech and activities of their workers. If an employee is fired for expressing their political views or participating in political activities, they may be able to file a wrongful termination claim.
• Wrongful constructive termination. In California, even if your job was not officially terminated, you may still bring a lawsuit against your employer. When an employer is unable to fire an employee immediately, such as due to contract terms, they can instead use constructive termination, which is when they purposefully create or allow an environment at work to get so hostile and intolerable that it would be fair for an employee to quit.
• Discrimination. Employers are not allowed to discriminate against their employees on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizenship status, age, sex, religion, pregnancy, handicap status, or genetic information, according to federal law.Discriminating based on ancestry, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical conditions, AIDS or HIV, political affiliation or activity, military or veteran status, or having been the victim of stalking, domestic abuse, or sexual assault are all considered forms of employment discrimination in California.
• Retaliation. Retaliation is forbidden by the Fair Employment and Housing Act of California (FEHA) for employers who participate in certain protected activities. These activities include opposing harassment or discrimination at work, formally reporting it, filing a complaint, testifying, or providing other support in connection with an investigation or legal claim involving harassment or discrimination.
• Failure to abide by WARN Act: Employers with 75 or more workers are required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) to provide 60 days’ notice to employees before beginning a layoff of 50 or more workers or before shutting or moving their place of business.
• Fraud. An employer may be charged with fraud in certain situations if their acts are willfully dishonest and immoral. This frequently happens when hiring new employees, when promises concerning employment are made and then broken, or when an employee’s employment is about to end and they are pressured to resign.Proof that your employer misrepresented the position and intended to trick or deceive you by getting you to rely on the false representation, and someone at a higher level knew about this behavior, that you did rely on the representation, and that you suffered harm as a result, are all necessary to prove that you were wrongfully terminated due to fraud.

If you are wrongfully terminated or face unfair treatment in the workplace, you may be able to file a claim to receive compensation for the damages you suffered as a result of the termination or mistreatment. These damages are granted in accordance with the particular facts of your case and the evidence you present to back up your claim. Some damages you can receive include:

• Lost wages. All of the money you would have received—including earned and unpaid salary, overtime compensation, bonuses, and other financial benefits your employer withheld from you—if you hadn’t been unlawfully fired is referred to as lost pay.The amount of money you made after losing your first job or the amount you could have gained from landing a similar position would be subtracted from this damage payout if you were later hired again. The date of rehire marks the end of lost pay damages if your pay rate remains the same or increases. You may be entitled to lost pay damages in the amount of the pay differential if your new position pays less.
• Future lost wages. You might be eligible for reimbursement for the lost income and benefits, in addition to any lost income and benefits, between the date of your termination and the court decision or settlement. This sum is equivalent to the wage and benefits you would have been eligible for from the date of the judgment or settlement until the date on which you would have been fired under normal circumstances.The court assesses this damage judgment based on your age, past work history, intention to stay with your previous employer, your employer’s intention to keep you in your position, and other factors that affect how long you would have expected to stay employed in your prior job.
• Lost benefits. In the event of a wrongful termination, you may be entitled to compensation for lost benefits from your job, such as profit-sharing, stocks, pension, retirement options, and health and dental insurance. You can evaluate these losses and determine a damage award that fairly quantifies them in monetary terms with the assistance of an employment attorney.
• Emotional damages. In addition to having an impact on your finances, being fired illegally can lead to unwarranted mental anguish, such as anxiety, grief, embarrassment, and a diminished quality of life.You may be able to seek compensation for pain and suffering in certain wrongful termination situations. A jury would typically only provide this kind of compensation if your employer acted in a highly unethical or destructive manner that directly caused you to suffer, as attested to by a mental health professional’s evaluation.
• Damage to your reputation. You may be entitled to compensation for the harm your wrongful termination did to your professional reputation, which in turn made it more difficult for you to find new employment.
• Legal fees. Certain types of wrongful termination allow you to collect legal fees, even though plaintiffs are typically responsible for covering these costs themselves. A FEHA breach is the most frequent type of termination that can result in a damage award for legal fees, but you could also be able to get this award for terminations that violate public policy.
• Punitive damages. In certain circumstances, such as where your wrongful termination includes acts that can be deemed particularly egregious, such as oppression or malice, you may be entitled to punitive damages.This is a form of punishment that holds your employer accountable for their conduct by directing them to pay damages above what you need to recover your losses, and this type of damage is not intended to make up for your losses as those above. Punitive damages are determined by a jury based on the particulars of the case, not on economic or non-economic losses.

Your obligation to lessen these losses and damages is a significant restriction on your capacity to seek compensation for wrongful termination. The amount of lost salary you are entitled to collect may be lowered if you were unlawfully fired and did not look for new work for a prolonged period of time despite having positions open to you. This responsibility stops workers from accruing lost pay from their previous company if they might have found a new position to make up for this loss.

If you have suffered a wrongful termination or other mistreatment in the workplace, there is help available to you. A Pasadena attorney at California Employment Counsel, APC, can help. Contact us today for more information.