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The California Supreme Court has recently decreed that religious nonprofits are exempt from California’s employment bias rules. But, as we’ll explain, this doesn’t mean that religious organizations are completely free to discriminate or to violate a host of other employment-related laws.
Juan Manuel Reyes, a sewing machine operator for Los Angeles sport jacket manufacturer J.H. Design Group, left work for two hours to testify on behalf of a former co-worker at an unemployment hearing. Reyes said that he took off during a morning break and didn’t punch out or notify a supervisor for fear of retribution. […]
A jury in Los Angeles awarded $5.16 million to a former financial manager for Nestle who claimed the company denied him promotions that went to junior employees. The manager was in his mid-40s. He complained to the human resources department and a senior executive but never got a satisfactory response about whether his age was […]
You’ve probably encountered one sometime or another. The supervisor who resorts to name-calling when dealing with subordinates. The worker who’s quick to blame others for mistakes. The manager who penalizes employees by excluding them from important meetings, removing them from routing lists or saddling them with menial work assignments. Although these workplace bullies may not […]
Many employers don’t realize that if you terminate health insurance coverage for an employee who has filed a workers’ comp claim, you can be hit with expensive penalties. In fact, even some comp insurers erroneously advise their policyholders that it’s OK to stop the health benefits of employees on workers’ comp so long as the […]
Twenty-one African-American workers at a Wonder Bread factory in San Francisco have sued the company for discrimination, saying they were denied promotions, given the worst shifts and subjected to racial slurs. They also claim that not one African-American is in a management position. Wonder’s parent company, Interstate Brands Corp., denies the charges and says it […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that two Maryland food processing plants will pay a total of $1 million to settle a sexual harassment suit on behalf of 22 female workers, all Central American immigrants. Male managers and co-workers allegedly groped the women and demanded sexual favors, and one woman was locked in a […]
President Clinton has signed into law new legislation, S. 2323, that excludes stock options from overtime pay. The bill takes effect on August 16, 2000, and is intended to counteract a recent Department of Labor opinion letter stating that stock option profits must be included in a nonexempt worker’s base pay when you calculate their […]
As we reported last month, the Industrial Welfare Commission is holding hearings and meetings throughout the state to review current overtime and other wage and hour rules and come up with new final wage orders. In this regular monthly feature, we’ll run down the IWC’s most recent activities.
A California Court of Appeal has ruled that a mechanic whose face was disfigured in a workplace explosion can have cosmetic surgery covered by workers’ compensation. The mechanic suffered severe burns when a welding torch ignited a fireball inside the fiber glass tank he was dismantling. The state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board had determined that […]