Wrongful Termination | Wrongful Dismissal

In California and in other states, it is illegal to discriminate against employees. When employees believe they have been discriminated against because of their religion or other factors, employees may take legal action to ensure that their employers comply with important state and federal laws.

Last month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against an electric company because it fired an employee who in advance requested a day off to attend a religious convention. The employee was a customer service representative and a Jehovah’s Witness.

A representative for the EEOC stated that the employee’s request was minor, so the EEOC was amazed that the electric company not only denied the employee’s request for one day off, but that the company also took action to fire the woman for making the request. “Employees should never be forced to choose between their religion and their job,” commented a director for the EEOC.

The federal law that the electric company allegedly violated is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act states that an employer cannot fire an employee based on religion and that an employer must make reasonable accommodations for employees to their religious beliefs, if those beliefs are sincere. Before filing the lawsuit, the EEOC attempted to reach a pre-litigation agreement with the electric company.

In the lawsuit, the EEOC requested that the court grant a permanent injunction against the electric company. The injunction states that the electric company cannot discriminate and fire employees because of religious beliefs. The lawsuit also requests that the court order the electric company to pay punitive and compensatory damages to the woman who was wrongfully terminated, along with any additional compensation for damages that the court deems fair and reasonable.

Source: jobmouse, “Power Supplier Fired Jehovah’s Witness For Wanting One Day Off To Attend Religious Convention,” Anneline Waldman, Jan. 27, 2012

Article source: http://www.sandiegoemploymentlawattorney.com/2012/02/eeoc-files-religious-discrimination-suit-against-electric-company.shtml

When workers in San Diego and throughout the entire state of California file lawsuits against employers for sexual harassment, they will sometimes cite that their work environments became too “hostile” for them to handle. Although any work setting where sexual harassment has occurred may be thought of as hostile, conditions in the office must meet specific requirements before employees can claim that their work environments are hostile.

According to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), isolated and even occasional acts of harassment do not always constitute a hostile work environment. However, harassment in any form is still illegal and complaints should be properly filed by employees in order to make sure that their rights are protected and that the harassment stops.

When an employee claims that an environment has become hostile under FEHA, the employee must be able to provide sufficient evidence of the harassment being severe enough to change the conditions in the office and to affect one’s ability to do his or her job. Additionally, if employees claim that harassment against other workers affected their own ability to work, the employees must provide sufficient evidence that they witnessed the harassment in person.

In a case recently decided by the California Court of Appeals, the court overturned a previous decision by a jury that ruled in favor of a woman who claimed that her work environment became hostile. The woman reported that between 2000 and 2003, she had attended three off-site work parties with employees that involved sexually offensive conduct. In 2004, she received an email by mistake that was written by an executive at her company. The email referred to the woman as “big-titted” and “mindless.”

In 2005, the employee quit and sued her former employer for sexual harassment and for creating a hostile work environment. A jury initially awarded the woman $250,000 in damages, but an appeals court judge overturned the jury’s decision citing that there was no evidence that the woman was ever assaulted, subjected to unwanted advances, threatened, propositioned or subjected to explicit language or verbal abuse.

The court agreed that that the email about the woman

Article source: http://www.sandiegoemploymentlawattorney.com/2012/02/when-is-a-work-environment-considered-to-be-hostile-in-california.shtml

Discrimination in the workplace and wrongful termination appear to be widespread problems in California and throughout the entire country. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), complaints from workers were up during 2011 for a second year in row with the majority of the charges against employers alleging racial discrimination and retaliation in the workplace.

The annual report was released by the EEOC last month. Although employees are protected by many state and federal laws, the results of the report suggest that more needs to be done to enforce these rights and that employers need to take a greater responsibility in making sure that the rights of employees are being protected.

According to the annual report, the EEOC received more than 99,900 complaints from U.S. workers. The agency helps to defend the rights of workers when employers violate the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

During the 2011 fiscal year, the agency reported that it received complaints from workers for the first time alleging violations of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. This law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on their families’ medical histories or their genetic information. More than 240 complaints in this category were reported and have not yet been resolved.

Retaliation by employers against workers accounted for the majority of the complaints filed by workers with the EEOC. These charges totaled 37,334 during 2011. More than 35,000 complaints involved race discrimination, more than 28,000 complaints involved sex discrimination and more 25,000 complaints involved disability discrimination.

Despite the record number of charges filed with the EEOC, the agency reported that it was able to close more than 112,000 pending complaints during 2011. Private, state and local employees who won their cases recovered more than $455 million in relief during the 2011 fiscal year. Federal employees who resolved their cases received more than $58 million in relief.

Source: Kansas City Star, “EEOC receives record job discrimination complaints in 2011,” Diane Stafford, Jan. 25, 2012

Article source: http://www.sandiegoemploymentlawattorney.com/2012/02/racial-discrimination-and-retaliation-major-problems-in-workplace.shtml