Calabasas Employment Law Blog

It is important for employers not to take advantage of their employees who go to work each day to earn a living and support themselves and their families. Workers should be familiar with the ways employers can take advantage of them and the remedies and resources they have available to them if they do.

Employee rights are an important protection under the law and are worth workers being familiar with. One way that employers can take advantage of workers and violate their rights is to fail to pay overtime pay. When employers require workers to clock out early or alter time sheets so as not to pay overtime pay, they may have violated the worker's rights. Another way that an employer may take advantage of employees that is against the law is by improperly classifying them as independent contractor. If a worker does not meet this definition but is classified by an employer as such, they may pay more taxes than they expect and go without benefits.

New state workplace laws recently went into effect at the beginning of the New Year. The laws were inspired by the recent focus on sexual harassment nationally. A total of eight bills were signed focusing on sexual harassment and other types of harassment and limiting the same in the workplace. One of the new laws relates to the number of women on the boards of publicly traded companies based in California.

Another new law prevents employers from requiring workers to sign certain documents as a condition for obtaining or retaining a job or receiving a raise or bonus. One type of document workers cannot be required to sign is an agreement not to bring a claim against the employer under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. The other is an agreement that would prevent the worker from disclosing information related to unlawful activity in the workplace including sexual harassment. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race or other protected status. The latter law applies to both public and private employers in California.

Unfortunately, there are many employers in California that do not comply with California's wage and hour laws. Employers are generally required to pay employees the applicable minimum wage for all of the hours they work and comply with all applicable laws regarding working conditions.

Workers and families rely on the wages they work hard for each day so it is important that they receive compensation they have earned. A sampling of some of the wage and hour violations workers may be owed for include compensation for time in between jobs if they were paid by the job or piece; time the worker was unable to earn commission such as during opening, closing or meetings if they are paid on compensation; all overtime hours worked and overtime rates of pay; time when a worker was told to wait to clock in; and for time when a worker was sent home from their scheduled shift.

Both employees and employers should understand the basics of workplace discrimination, what is not allowed in the workplace and how to prevent it from taking place. Additionally, employees should understand that they are protected from workplace discrimination and have important legal rights to not be discriminated against at work that they should be familiar with.

In general, workplace discrimination is prohibited in the workplace based on race, color, gender, national origin, citizenship, religion, disability, age and pregnancy. In some states, additional protections are provided based on sexual orientation, marital status and weight. Whether or not workplace discrimination prohibitions apply to a particular employer largely depends on the number of workers they employ so it is helpful to be familiar with those standards.