A whistleblower filed a lawsuit against Walmart today, alleging that the company committed fraudulent and misleading practices in order to thwart competition from Amazon and boost its stock price in the war for e-commerce sales. The lawsuit was filed by Tri Huynh, a...
The Rutten Law Firm, APC
When may employees take leave under the FMLA?
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law in 1993, though many employees have not heard of the FMLA. In the simplest terms, the FMLA provides unpaid, job-protected leave for employees with a serious medical condition, or to care for a sick family...
Employee Leave Laws – Paid Family Leave (PFL), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA)
The FMLA (federal) and CFRA (California) are leave laws that allow an employee to take unpaid leave from a job to care for oneself, a family member who is ill, or children who are unable to take care of themselves. PFL does not change either law and is separate from...
Women in male-dominated workplaces report higher discrimination
Today, the global community recognizes International Women’s Day. Therefore, it’s only fitting to discuss the challenges that many women face in California alongside women’s rights. Unfortunately, workplace discrimination is still among these issues. A Pew Research...
California rules that the ADA protects obese people
You're probably aware that the United States created a series of civil rights laws to protect individuals from discrimination based on certain characteristics, such as age, religion or ethnicity. Included on this list of protected traits is disability--and the law...
Pregnancy protections in your workplace
You were more than excited to share the news with your colleagues that you were going to have a baby. Most people responded positively, some even suggested a baby shower at work. The people who weren't happy, though, were those in charge. You couldn't understand why...
Human resources professionals need to stop covering up sexual harassment
As someone who fights on behalf of employees whose civil rights have been violated, it's important for me to be well versed in human resources. This way I know when a human resources professional has failed to do his or her job. I joined the largest professional human...
California Fair Pay Act – Equal Pay for All Genders and Races
Designed to close the gap in pay between what California men and women are paid in similar jobs, the amended California Fair Pay Act (CFPA) went into effect on January 1, 2016. Unlike some employment laws, the Fair Pay Act applies to employers of any size. The CFPA,...
Are they writing you up so they can fire you? Is that illegal?
If you are a long term employee with a stellar performance record it might come as a shock if all of the sudden you were being written-up for trivial offenses. Maybe the write-ups were for things that never got you written-up before or maybe they were for things that...
Can an employee be fired for refusing to break the law?
When an employer directs an employee to engage in illegal activity it puts the employee in an incredibly difficult situation. On one hand, the employee wants to uphold the law, is morally and ethically opposed to what the employer is asking, and naturally would fear...