A number of California companies, especially in the tech industry are facing increased scrutiny over equal pay issues in recent years. While these types of claims have been hard to have certified as a class action on the federal level, some claims under California’s recent Equal Pay Act are seeing success. Here are five reminders
Pay equity and transparency laws are being considered within the United States and by many countries. For example, internationally, Europe is reviewing a potential law requiring all wages to be published, Iceland requires companies to prove pay equity since 2018, and a similar law in Canada has passed for employers with 10 or more employees.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for an individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of the job unless it would cause an undue hardship on the employer. Common reasonable accommodations include changing job duties for the position, allowing a leave of absence for
Plaintiff Ketryn Cornell began working part-time for the Berkeley Tennis Club as a lifeguard and pool manager in 1997, while attending college at UC Berkeley. She was employed as a night manager and continued to work at the Club after graduating from college in 2001. In 2011, she took on additional duties and began working
Another Friday – another Friday’s Five. November 2017, a great time to have a refresher course on five obligations employers have under California law to prevent and correct any potential harassment and discrimination in the workplace:
1. Duty to prevent harassment
The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers to take “all reasonable steps
Employers in California with 50 or more workers must provide at least two hours of sexual harassment 
prevention training to all supervisors. The requirements of what topics this training must include has changed since AB 1825 was passed requiring the training. For example, AB 2053 required as of January 2015 “prevention of abusive conduct as
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Council published new regulations pertaining to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment requirements effective April 1, 2016. Employers need to review and potentially update their policies in order to meet the new requirements.
The full text of the regulations can be obtained here.
In July 2015, Governor Brown signed legislation designed to overturn the decision in Rope v. Auto-Chlor 
System of Washington Inc. The case involved an employee who was asking his employer for an accommodation to take a future leave of absence in order to donate a kidney to his sister. As discussed below, the case raises
You may recall from your college business law class of the “American rule” regarding attorney’s 
fees: generally in the United States each side is responsible to their own attorney’s fees, and unlike other countries, the loser does not have to pay the other party’s attorney’s fees. Employers can basically ignore this general rule