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California Employment Law FAQ

Learn about common California employment law cases and get answers to your questions
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Table of Contents

Wrongful Termination

In California, most employment relationships are “at will.” At-will employment means that the employer may terminate the employment relationship for any reason. However, terminating an employee for an unlawful motivation or retaliatory reason is a violation of California law.

Constructive wrongful termination occurs when an employee is not fired but quits because the working conditions have become so awful that they have been left with no other option.

California courts have held that if conditions are so extreme that a reasonable person could not consider continuing to remain in their employment any longer, then a person may quit and seek damages for their lost wages as a result of the constructive termination.

That said, employees are expected to exhaust all reporting mechanisms to resolve their employment issues before quitting. Failure to try and remedy the situation before quitting often prevents an employee from making a constructive termination claim. If an employee has exhausted all reporting mechanisms and nothing changes, an employee may quit and seek compensation for their lost wages.

Every wrongful termination claim is different. Settlements are determined by a number of factors that include the terminated employee’s lost wages, damages suffered, and other considerations. Without an experienced attorney, however, you are unlikely to receive the maximum compensation you’re entitled to.

Unpaid Wages & Overtime

Employees in California are entitled to initiate a California labor board claim or file a lawsuit against their employer for damages caused by a failure to properly compensate the employee for overtime worked. These damages include all overtime wages that have been illegally withheld from the employee, penalties, and attorneys’ fees.

While the value of these illegally withheld wages may seem small on a daily basis, over years, the value of these wages that employees are missing out on can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars per employee.

California Labor Board Claims

Like many government entities throughout the state of California, the California Labor Board has experienced severe budget cuts, and there are now fewer Labor Board employees working on many more cases at a time.

The impact of these budget cuts is that claims are often being processed much slower, and claimants may even have difficulty speaking to a Labor Board employee regarding their claim.

In contrast, when you hire Baker Law Group, LLP, to pursue a claim for unpaid wages, you can be sure that your attorney is pursuing the case aggressively and will provide status updates whenever you ask for them.

The California Labor Board will only seek to enforce overtime wages for three years back from the filing of your claim due to a statute of limitations.

In contrast, a California employment attorney will generally pursue your unpaid wages going back four years from the filing of your claim under the California Business & Professions Code Section 17200. This generally allows the employee to recover one additional year’s worth of unpaid overtime.

The California Labor Board generally will not pursue such penalties, whereas a California employment attorney will.

A private attorney may pursue a claim under the California Private Attorney General’s Act, however, which allows aggrieved employees to recover civil penalties on behalf of themselves, as well as other similarly situated employees with the company.

Meal & Rest Period Violations

There are some exclusions to the meal period requirement. For example, “exempt” staff members do not have to be given an opportunity for an uninterrupted 30-minute meal break.

Employees who are part of a union, or otherwise working under a collective bargaining agreement, are not always entitled to thirty-minute meal breaks. Another exemption exists for employees who will work less than six hours in a given shift. In the case when the working day is under six hours, the worker may agree to waive the meal break.

The issue of whether or not an employee is in fact exempt is quite complicated. It’s generally advisable to consult with an attorney to see if this exemption should actually apply in your case.

In some instances, “on duty” meal periods are allowed if the type of work performed by the employee prevents the employee from being completely relieved of job duties. Some examples of such job duties include security guards, who are charged with guarding remote locations where it is impractical for the guard to leave the post unmanned for thirty minutes to take a break.

This exemption can be quite complicated, so it is best to consult with the employment attorneys at Baker Law Group, LLP, to see if this exemption applies to your situation.

Disability Discrimination

For a worker to qualify to claim disability discrimination based upon California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act, he or she must be considered a “qualified individual with a disability.” This requires that the worker must be able to perform the essential functions of the job, either with or without a reasonable accommodation.

In determining whether or not a worker is “disabled” for the purposes of California law, the law requires that the medical condition impacts a “major life activity.” However, the employee’s job and ability to work is considered a “major life activity” under California law. Therefore, even if the disability doesn’t impact many areas of the employee’s day-to-day life, it is generally considered a disability for the purposes of California law if it affects employment.

Pregnancy Discrimination

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act makes it illegal for companies to demote, fire, or in any other way discriminate against a worker because of her pregnancy or for her decision to request pregnancy leave.

California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave Law also requires companies to provide employees with four months of leave for employees who need medical leave as a result of their pregnancy. The employer’s duty to provide four months of pregnancy-related medical leave is provided for explicitly in the law. Even if a company has a different policy in regards to medical disability leaves, it will still be required to provide pregnant employees with such medical leave. This law provides pregnant employees with benefits beyond the general disability leave rules that exist in California.

Another law that is potentially applicable in pregnancy-related discrimination cases is the California Family Rights Act. After the employee has given birth, she may be entitled to an additional twelve weeks of leave under the California Family Rights Act. However, in order for the California Family Rights Act to apply, the employer must employ at least fifty workers within a 75-mile radius of the pregnant employee’s place of work, and the pregnant employee must have worked for the company for at least one year, and have logged at least 1,250 hours of work in the last year.

Sexual Harassment

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act defines sexual harassment as unwanted sexual advances or visual, verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment encompasses several forms of offensive behavior, including harassment of an employee who is the same gender as the harasser.

Most employers have a company policy prohibiting the types of sexual harassment outlined above, and the law generally requires that employees make a good-faith effort to resolve complaints related to sexual harassment within that company policy. It is also extremely important for employees who are victims of such harassment to carefully document such experiences and the company’s response.

Gender Discrimination

The outcome of your lawsuit will depend on the discrimination involved and the harm suffered, and compensation can include financial settlements as well as other remedies negotiated by both sides.

Employees who have suffered gender discrimination and proceed with litigation can also seek attorney’s fees and costs as part of their claim.

Unlawful Retaliation

An employee who has been fired in retaliation for engaged in any of the above protected activities may have a claim for wrongful termination in violation of public policy. Such lawsuits would generally include a demand for missed wages, emotional distress, as well as punitive damages.
Employees who have suffered gender discrimination and proceed with litigation can also seek attorney’s fees and costs as part of their claim.

Family & Medical Leave

Pregnancy leave is a common example. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act makes it illegal for companies to demote, fire, or in any other way discriminate against a worker because of her pregnancy, or for her decision to request pregnancy leave.

California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave Law also requires companies to provide employees with four months of leave for employees who need medical leave as a result of their pregnancy.

Misclassification as Independent Contractor

An employee in California is entitled to file a lawsuit against their employer for damages caused as a result of being misclassified as an independent contractor. These damages often include all wages and benefits that have been illegally withheld from the employee.

While the value of these benefits may seem small on a daily basis, over the years, the value of these benefits that employees are missing out on can easily reach thousands of dollars per employee. In addition, employers can be forced to pay attorney’s fees and the costs of the lawsuit.

Every case is different, but results from some high profile cases where employers mischaracterized workers as independent contractors include a case where a group of FedEx delivery drivers was awarded a judgment of $17.8 million in damages.

In another high profile case, Microsoft agreed to a settlement of $96 million for improperly treating some of their workers as independent contractors when they were actually employees.

Non-Compete Agreements in California

A non-compete agreement is a contract under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to pursue a similar profession or trade in competition against another party (usually the employer).

These contracts are intended to prevent the possibility that an employee will not engage in activities that place him or her in direct competition with their employer, or use sensitive information such as customer/client lists, business practices, upcoming products and marketing plans. In many instances, the non-compete agreement may be contained as a section or clause under the larger employment contract.

Proving whether or not a non-compete agreement is valid is usually the simple part of such cases. The more difficult aspect is proving that the employee was in fact terminated for refusing to sign a non-compete agreement, and not some other unrelated issue.

One of the most important elements of this analysis is usually timing. If the employee was fired the same day or within a few days of refusing to sign an unenforceable non-compete agreement, the case is usually quite strong. However, if the employer waiting a long time after the employee’s refusal to sign the agreement before firing him, proving the connection between the two events can be much more difficult in a wrongful termination case.

Whistleblowing

A whistleblower is typically an employee who talks about a company’s unlawful behavior to someone outside of the organization — most often a government, regulatory or even law enforcement organization.

If a worker simply makes a complaint within the organization, that isn’t true whistleblowing. The employee isn’t protected by the same whistleblower laws and regulations, although different regulations may apply. For example, it’s unlawful to terminate a worker for sexual harassment or discrimination complaints, even if those complaints are only made internally.

In the event that the worker has documented the presumably unlawful action to any government, regulatory, or law enforcement organization, he/she is protected from any retaliatory conduct. The company can’t dismiss the staff member for whistleblowing or give the employee any other negative treatment on-the-job in retaliation.

However, this doesn’t mean that the worker can’t be terminated for any reason after whistleblowing. The company may continue to treat the worker similarly to any other worker. In other words, the employee could still be fired from the company, the employee just can’t be fired because of whistleblowing.

Pay Stub Violations

California Labor Code section 226 sets strict requirements for employee pay stubs. These regulations are intended to empower workers to ensure that they have been paid properly.

If an employer fails to provide a complying pay stub, the violations could entitle the employee to recover certain penalties, which can be as much as $100 per employee for each pay period. This can total several thousand dollars per employee over the course of a year.

In practice, many employers who fail to provide employees with accurate, itemized pay stubs are doing so in an attempt to hide the fact that they are not paying the legally required overtime rates to employees.

Additionally, certain industries are more likely to provide non-conforming pay stubs than others. For example, we routinely see that our clients working as mechanics, plumbers, and other piece rate, commission, and “flag rate” employees have claims against the employers related to pay stub violations.

Employers who knowingly and intentionally fail to comply with all of these requirements may have lawsuits filed against them. Employers are subject to pay for any loss experienced from failure to comply with the requirements, which is at least $50 for the first failure and $100 per inadequate paystub after the first.

Damages are capped at $4,000. However, an employer also is liable for paying for the costs of the lawsuit and attorney’s fees. This type of case is usually brought alongside a claim for unpaid wages or unpaid overtime.

Racial Discrimination

State and Federal law prohibit employers from unlawful retaliation against employees who oppose racial discrimination or participate in an anti-discriminatory proceeding, even if they are “at-will” employees.

If an employee has been fired in retaliation for engaging in such activities, they may have a claim for wrongful termination in violation of public policy.

National Origin Discrimination

State and Federal law prohibit employers from unlawful retaliation against employees who oppose national origin discrimination or participate in an anti-discriminatory proceeding, even if they are “at-will” employees.

If an employee has been fired in retaliation for engaging in such activities, they may have a claim for wrongful termination in violation of public policy.

Improper Payroll Deductions

If your employer makes improper payroll & wage deductions from your pay, you are entitled to file a lawsuit against your employer to recover the amounts illegally deducted.

Additionally, your employer can be held liable for certain penalties, interest and attorneys fees.

If you feel you have been the victim of improper payroll & wage deductions, Michelle Baker can discuss the facts of the case with you, explain the law, and often times represent you against your former current or employer.

Age Discrimination

The most difficult aspect of an age discrimination claim is not proving that an employee was terminated under odd circumstances, but proving that the employee’s age played a substantial role in the employer’s decision to fire the older worker. Because of this fact, individual workers often have a hard time obtaining the required evidence to bring an age discrimination complaint.

However, age discrimination commonly occurs throughout a company when new policies, such as cost-cutting measures, are implemented that impact an entire group of older workers.

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