San Francisco Employment Law Blog

It is common for people to assume that many individuals with disabilities were born with them. However, a multitude of people, including many in California, develop disabilities later in life due to accidents, injuries or illnesses. As a result, someone could hold a job for a number of years before developing a disability that may need accommodation. If an employer fails to adhere to laws requiring these accommodations, a person could have reason to file a workplace discrimination claim.

It was recently reported that such a claim has been filed in another state against Walmart. Apparently, an employee had developed an undisclosed disability after working as a sales associate with the company. The disability apparently resulted in her losing the ability to carry out the duties associated with her sales position, but she could still work in other positions.

The California Supreme Court adopted a new legal standard that will make it more difficult for businesses to misclassify workers as independent contractors. This will directly affect the trucking and transportation industry as well as the gig economy (e.g., Uber, Grubhub, Bellhops, Caviar, Dolly, DoorDash).

When many people think of discrimination in the workplace, they may first consider race and gender discrimination. What they may not more fully consider is a form of gender discrimination relating to pregnancy. In fact, some California workers may have faced negative impacts to their jobs due to what employers perceived as pregnancy issues.

Unfortunately, pregnancy discrimination is a serious issue, and many women can give accounts of facing unfair treatment at their places of employment due to being pregnant. In fact, some individuals have even lost their jobs because of their pregnancies. One worker cried on shift after being yelled at by a customer and was soon fired for being "too emotional," while another woman faced dismissal after looking to obtain information regarding maternity leave.

Unwanted sexual advances, crude remarks and other actions can all fall into the category of harassment. While more light has been shed on sexual harassment in the workplace in recent months, there is still much information regarding this issue that needs discussing. For instance, many men also face this type of harassment while on the job, but most feel hesitant to bring up the topic.

California readers may be interested in new research that indicates that approximately 17 percent of harassment claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are from men. Typically, the harassment begins due to other workers not viewing the men as masculine, and harassers seek to humiliate victims. In many cases, male victims worry that others will not believe them or that the situation is too embarrassing to bring up.