Employment Attorneys Serving Orange, California
Stephen Danz and Associates is a California law firm with attorneys representing most of the state’s major cities. Our attorneys cover cities in Northern California and Southern California as the State’s courts are as specialized and diverse as the State’s landscape. In Orange, California, our employment lawyers are highly specialized and handle complex employment lawsuits where private individuals trust us to bring forth their cases in local, state and federal courts.
What Are Protection Against Retaliation under the CFRA?
Under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), employers are prohibited from retaliation against anyone for exercising the right to leave or for giving information or testimony related to rights under CFRA. The elements of a CFRA retaliation claim are as follows:
(1) Defendant employer was covered by CFRA;
(2) Plaintiff employee was eligible to take CFRA leave;
(3) Plaintiff exercised the right to take CFRA leave for a qualifying purpose; and
(4) Plaintiff suffered adverse employment action because of exercising that right.
What is Considered Employer Interference with CFRA Rights?
Interference with CFRA (and FMLA) rights can be shown by evidence that an employee’s supervisor discouraged her from taking leave, repeatedly refused to grant extensions of leave to which she was entitled, mischaracterized her leave as personal, and took her leave into account in giving her a poor evaluation and recommending her for termination.
What is Relief under CFRA?
The CFRA provides the same relief available under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), i.e., both equitable relief and monetary damages, including compensatory damages.
What is the Pregnancy Disability Leave?
Disability owing to pregnancy is explicitly excluded from coverage under the CFRA. Instead, California employers with five or more employees are subject to FEHA’s pregnancy disability leave law (PDLL), which gives employees who are disabled because of pregnancy up to 4 months of unpaid leave. The employer must maintain group health insurance coverage for employees during a PDLL leave on the same terms as if the employee had continued to work. If the employee fails to return to work after the Leave expires, the employer may be able to recover premiums paid during the leave. An employee who takes pregnancy disability leave is entitled to return to work following her leave.
If an employer has more than 50 employees and is covered under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the employee meets the FMLA in-service requirements, the employer must continue the employee’s health care benefits for the period of disability up to the FMLA maximum of 12 weeks.
Who Enforces FEHA?
The pregnancy disability leave provisions are part of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and are enforced by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
What Relief is Provided for Pregnancy Disability?
The pregnancy disability leave provisions supply the same relief available under other FEHA provisions, i.e., both equitable relief and monetary damages, including compensatory damages.
What Protections are Provided for Military Duty?
An employer may not discharge an employee because of the employee’s membership in the state militia or because the employee is ordered to do military duty or training in the state military services. Individual supervisors are not personally liable for allegedly discriminatory acts that arise out of the performance of regular and necessary personnel management duties.
What Rights Do Employees Have under the Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Act?
The Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Act requires private employers of 25 or more employees to make reasonable accommodation not amounting to undue hardship for employees who voluntarily take part in alcohol or drug rehabilitation programs. The employer should also make reasonable efforts to protect the employees’ privacy regarding the programs. However, an employer need not hire or continue to employ anyone who, because of alcohol or drugs, cannot perform the job or cannot do so without endangering the health or safety of himself or herself or others.
What is Sick Leave for Illness of Family Member (Kin Care)?
Under California Labor law, an employer who provides sick leave for employees must allow employees to use in any calendar year “the employee’s accrued and available sick leave entitlement,” in an amount not less than the sick leave that would be accrued during six months at the employee’s then-current rate of entitlement, for any of the reasons that an employee is permitted to use sick leave under California’s paid sick leave law. Employers may not terminate or otherwise discriminate against an employee for using or attempting to use sick leave for these purposes. If the employee brings a civil action for a violation of such rights and prevails, the court may award attorney fees to the employee.