Los Angeles Employment Law Blog

One struggle people in California might encounter in the workplace is the issue of subtle discrimination or harassment. While it may be easy to identify overt speech and action, this can be much more difficult when the discrimination is harder to pinpoint.

Examples might include someone who keeps staring at a pregnant woman's belly, a man who refuses to make eye contact with a female colleague or someone who looks at a minority employee whenever race is mentioned. It can be difficult for both an employee and a human resources department to determine whether discrimination has occurred when the issue is how one person looks at another. Unfortunately, this can still create a situation in which a person feels uncomfortable in the workplace.

Despite the rising publicity and awareness about sexual harassment, some of the most prominent companies in California may still be guilty of gender discrimination. One group of female former employees at Nike, the athletic wear company, have filed a lawsuit alleging that the corporation systematically discriminated against women on the job through a hostile work environment. The suit, filed in August 2018, argues that the company discriminated against women in terms of employment conditions, promotions and pay, among other issues.

The women are seeking class-action status for their case and argue that female employees at Nike were passed over for promotions. They also say that performance reviews were tougher on women than men, leading to lower bonuses and salaries. Furthermore, the plaintiffs charge that when women raised their concern to the company's human resources department, their complaints were dismissed, neglected or ignored. Allegations of workplace discrimination at the company came into the spotlight when a group of women presented Nike's CEO with the results of a survey on discrimination.

Some older job seekers in California and throughout the country may not be recruited for certain jobs, and several related lawsuits are in progress. One 45-year-old woman found that her daughter was seeing job ads on Facebook that she was not. In December, the Communication Workers of America filed a lawsuit on her behalf and that of other workers against Facebook, T-Mobile and a number of other companies alleging age discrimination.

Employers are prohibited from discriminating against workers who are 40 and over, but the legal issue hinges on whether the recruitment methods constitute age discrimination. For example, one case is challenging the practices of employers who only recruit on college campuses. Another common practice is limiting the amount of experience a company will accept for a position. One attorney sued a company that would not accept more than seven years of experience, pointing out that most attorneys 40 and older would have over seven years of experience. A three-judge court of appeals overturned the decision of a lower court and ruled in his favor, but the company is appealing.

As part of its efforts to crack down on leave policy violations, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has settled a case against Mueller Industries Inc. The agency accused the manufacturer of discriminating against disabled employees with its leave policy. The settlement that emerged from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California applies to Mueller Industries' nationwide operations. This case illustrated the commission's ongoing effort to address discriminatory practices derived from strict limits on the length of leaves or requirements that employees must be completely healthy to resume work.

Mueller Industries will pay damages of $1 million and update its leave policies so that workers can use leave as a reasonable accommodation for their disabilities. The EEOC has made clear in past cases that leaves qualify as reasonable accommodations as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mueller Industries violated this law by firing people who used leaves to deal with disabilities or exceeded the maximum number of days off allowed.