Los Angeles Employment Law Blog

Generally speaking, employees in California can’t be discriminated against based on their sexual orientation. A former Goldman Sachs employee says that he was terminated after making a discrimination complaint. The man was the leader of the company’s LGBTQ network and openly gay. According to the former employee’s lawsuit, poor marks were included in his personnel file by his superiors. It is claimed that these remarks were intended to serve as justification for his eventual termination.

Veterans in California are protected against job discrimination based on their military service in the same way that people are protected from discrimination based on race, national origin and other protected characteristics. There is also a law in place that allows them preferential treatment when it comes to federal employment.

California residents should be aware of a proposed law that could make it much easier for victims of workplace age discrimination to pursue monetary damages in court. While the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA) has been proposed many times over the past decade, some analysts predict that it could be passed this year.

The workers in Amazon’s facilities throughout North America are largely invisible to online shoppers in California. A new complaint received by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reveals that some workers allegedly face a hostile atmosphere on the job. The workers’ rights group Muslim Advocates filed the complaint on behalf of three Muslim Somali women who claim to have suffered religious discrimination and retaliation.

It is generally not possible for an employer to use a person’s genetic information to make an employment decision. This is true whether the company is in California or any other state. Employment decisions could include choosing whether to hire someone, terminate an individual or promote someone. If an individual believes that his or her genetic information has been misused, he or she can file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Generally speaking, companies around the country are not allowed to make employment decisions based on an employee’s gender. A woman has filed a lawsuit against Northern California-based PayPal Holdings, Inc., claiming that she was passed over for a job because of travel requirements and the fact that she had a young child. However, she claims that she had previously lived in Europe and traveled internationally many times in the past.

The definition of professional varies significantly in the working world. Some companies require employees to wear a suit or a skirt at all times. Others might allow their employees to wear blue jeans seven days a week. Regardless of the definition of professional in the workplace, most people think it refers to a dress code. However, people of color across the nation might disagree. 

For LGBT workers in California, workplace discrimination continues to be a major concern. The U.S. Supreme Court will be taking up a case to assess once more whether or not federal civil rights law provides nationwide protection against discrimination on the job on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The high court said that it will hear some cases alleging that the plaintiffs were fired due to their sexual orientation as well as the case of a funeral home worker who was fired after announcing she was transitioning to living as a woman.