Bay Area Employment Law Blog
How do you document sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a significant problem. Thousands of incidents are reported every year, and many more incidents likely go undiscovered because the victims are afraid to speak out. Who will believe them? How will they prove their case in court? The...
How to tell if you’ve been wrongfully fired from your job
If you were suddenly fired, it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether your termination was just unfair or outright illegal. If it was illegal, you have the right to file a wrongful termination lawsuit. Here are some things you should know. 1. There are all sorts...
Facebook job ads raise specter of age discrimination
Could Facebook be helping companies participate in illegal hiring practices that involve obvious age discrimination? It certainly seems that way. At least one expert in employment and discrimination law has called the move "blatantly unlawful." At issue is Facebook's...
Filing a sexual harassment claim? Employers must keep evidence
It's true that what's written down in a text or an email sometimes comes off sounding different than it was intended. You can't see the writer's facial expressions, hear his or her tone of voice or pick up on all the other micro-cues that determine how you interpret...
Seek legal advice if you believe you’ve been fired in retaliation
Can you legally refuse to work without being penalized for it? It depends. If a situation presents an obvious hazard but there's no clear risk of real physical harm or death, you should report the issue to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Keep...
California takes new step to prevent women from discrimination
There's a very subtle way that women are discriminated against in the job market. It's so subtle, in fact, that most women probably don't give it much thought or even realize that it has the capacity to lock them in a gender-based cycle of unequal pay for equal work....
What is caregiver discrimination?
Many people have never heard of caregiver discrimination -- even if they've dealt with it in person. Caregiver, or "family responsibility," discrimination occurs whenever an assumption is made (either correctly or incorrectly) that an employee's responsibilities at...
Getting even: How to define retaliation for your employees
If an employee has filed a complaint against your company due to the discriminatory behavior of other employees, you are now in the peculiar position of having to defend that person from his or her co-workers -- whether you want to or not. Even when an employee is...
How do you avoid workplace discrimination because you’re Muslim?
There's been an uptick in cases of workplace discrimination toward Muslim-Americans -- to the tune of 250 percent since before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Unfortunately, while America treasures the concept of religious freedom, fear has made much of the...
Get help if someone uses a power imbalance to sexually harass you
There has been a striking imbalance between the number of males and females in California's tech industry and between the investors that men and women business leaders were able to attract. There seemed to be no logical reason for the ever-widening gender gap in the...