Los Angeles Legal Services - Employment Law Attorney

ADEA: Protecting Employees from Age Discrimination

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:17:24 -0800

You, like all people, will notice the different effects of aging once you reach late 30s or early 40s and you will not be able to do anything to stop them, regardless of the developments in science today. When you get old, your needs for food, shelter, and clothes will not change. You will still need to work in order to have enough money to sustain all your daily needs.

However, an employer may refuse to hire you or give you better employment opportunities because he thinks that younger applicants or employees are more qualified and skilled compared to you. If you believe that you are being treated unfairly because of your age, you can take legal action against your employer with the help of a Los Angeles discrimination lawyer.

What is ADEA?

Many employees are being subjected to discriminatory practices because of their old age. In fact, statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revealed that in the Fiscal Year of 2008 alone, around 24,582 age discrimination complaints were filed with the agency.

Because of the frequent occurrence of age discrimination in the workplace today, it is important for you to be aware of your rights and the law which covers them so that you will know what to do if ever the unlawful act was done against you.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) may be used by your lawyer when fighting for your rights. Under it, employers cannot perform discriminatory actions against individuals who have reached at least 40-years old. If you are included in this protected class, you can file a complaint with EEOC if your employer made employment related decisions which are based on your age.

Aside from banning age discrimination in the workplace, ADEA will also protect you from retaliation if you opposed practices or actions that discriminate based on a person’s age, filed an age discrimination complaint with or the EEOC, or participated or testified in a proceeding, investigation or litigation covered by such law.

The rules imposed by ADEA cover employers who have at least 20 workers, including both local and state governments. In addition, they also apply to labor organizations, employment agencies, and the federal government.

Protection Provided by ADEA

ADEA prohibits age discrimination in all areas of employment, including the following:

Advertisements and job notices- Under ADEA, employers are prohibited from including age specifications, limitations, or preferences in job advertisements or notices. They may only require an age limit for a vacant job position if it there is a need to do so.

Benefits- ADEA was amended by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWPA) of 1990 so that employers will be prohibited from denying employment benefits to old workers.

For more information about age discrimination, you can call a Los Angeles employment lawyer.

How Can You Protect Your Employees from Sexual Harassment?

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:10:20 -0800

One of the biggest responsibilities that you have is to make sure that your employees will be in a workplace which is free from sexual harassment. You should not ignore your duty to uphold the rights of your employees because failure to do so may expose you to liabilities, even though you were not the one who performed the illegal act.

Sexual harassment is strictly prohibited by the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It happens when unwanted sexual advances, pleas for sexual favors, and other physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature affects a person’s employment, creates an offensive, intimidating, or hostile work environment, or unjustly interferes with his job performance.

It is your responsibility to make sure that all your employees are safe from this illegal act. This goal may be accomplished if you do the following:

Consult a Los Angeles harassment lawyer. If you are not familiar with Title VII or if you are unsure whether the policies you are planning to implement are good for your employees, it is advisable that you seek legal advice from a lawyer.
Enforce an anti-sexual harassment policy. You can include a provision in the employee handbook which states that the company does not tolerate sexual harassment. In order for your employees to have a clearer understanding regarding this unlawful act and the company’s stand against it, you should make sure that the following details will be included in the policy:

Definition of sexual harassment and examples of actions which constitute it
Procedures when filing and investigating complaints
Punishment to those who will be found guilty of it

Be approachable. Make your employees feel that they can talk to you if they have problems regarding their workload and co-employees.
Conduct a proper and unbiased investigation if you received a sexual harassment complaint. You are required to address the problem, even if you believe that the allegations are not true.

When conducting the investigation, you should listen to the allegations or arguments of both parties. In addition, you should also acquire evidence which can show if the complainant is telling the truth.

If the results of your investigation showed that sexual harassment occurred in the workplace, you should then punish the harasser for his actions.

If you have questions about sexual harassment, you can call a Los Angeles employment lawyer near you.

Employment Harassment 101: Learn More From Los Angeles Harassment Lawyer

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

In 2009 alone, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has received a total of 30,641 harassment charges from the whole country.

It is a tad lower compared to 2008 but still relatively higher compared to other previous years.

This goes to show the high rate of harassment incidents in the US.

That is why it is important to consult a Los Angeles harassment lawyer to help you explore your legal options if you feel that you are being harassed in the workplace.

The problem is that not all workers understand what harassment is.

Most people are only familiar with sexual harassment or unwanted sexual behaviors that they think that harassment is limited only to that.

However, harassment is more than that.

To give you more of an idea about what harassment really is, here are some answers to some frequently asked questions:

What is harassment?

Generally, harassment refers to unwelcome behavior that results in humiliation feeling of inferiority or even a threat to a person’s health or safety.

The purpose of these kinds of behavior is to create a hostile work environment for the target that would interfere with his work.

What are the different types of harassment?

Well, as said above, sexual harassment is probably the one that all people at least heard about.

But harassment can take a lot of forms.

It can be discriminatory or harassment based on the membership or association of the target to a certain protected class like race, religion, national origin, age, etc…

Harassment could also be retaliatory for participating in an investigation against the employer.

What are the laws that protect employees from harassment?

The federal and state anti-discrimination laws also protect employees from most forms of harassment and retaliation.

In California, it is the Fair Employment and Housing Act that is being implemented as an equal employment opportunity law.

What are my options if I feel that I am being harassed at work?

You can either file a complaint with the EEOC or California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

You can also directly file a harassment lawsuit against your employer for failing to stop the incidents of harassment against you.

In any case, you can contact the Los Angeles employment lawyers for legal advice.

Essential Legal Issues and Facts about Workers’ Compensation

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Engaging in a dangerous job just to earnmoney for your family is a noble act. But there is a possibility that anaccident might take place. Just in case you get involved in one, you must asklegal advice from a Los Angeles worker compensation attorney immediately. Withthe help of your lawyer, you would be able to obtain workers’ compensationbenefits from your employer. But what is workers’ compensation?

Workers’ compensation benefits are providedto employees who have suffered injuries or illnesses while on the job, or as aresult of their job responsibilities. The following are some federal and statelaws that require employers to offer benefits to their disabled and injuredworkers:

Federal Employment Compensation Act (FECA) – This law regulates a type of workers’ compensation benefit that is given to federal, non-military employees in case they were injured while on duty.
Federal Employment Liability Act (FELA) – This law states that interstate railroad companies should provide workers’ compensation benefits to their workers if they get injured.
Merchant Marine Act (Jones Act) – This federal law protects the rights of seamen who were injured while at sea.
Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) – This law states that specified maritime companies should offer workers’ compensation to their injured or disabled employees.
Black Lung Benefits Act – This law requires mining companies to provide workers’ compensation to employees who have acquired the “black lung” disease, or pneumoconiosis.
California Workers’ Compensation Act – This state law requires employers to get insurance policies for their employees and compensate a portion of their damages because of a work-related injury or disability.

If your situation applies to any one ofthese laws, you may recover benefits from your employer. However, if your bossrefuses to pay for your medical bills and provide workers’ compensation, youshould take legal action right away. Your Los Angeles employment lawyer willcertainly provide you better chances of recovering your damages.

The Mesriani Law Group is a premier law firmthat handles employment and accident cases. Call our hotline at (310) 826-6300and tell us more about your situation. With over 15 years in the legal industry,we will definitely deliver favorable results to your claim.

Getting into an accident while at workcauses financial problems because you will not be able to go to work because ofyour injury. If you seek legal assistance from a Los Angeles worker’s compensationattorney, you would not need to worry about bills because your employer willpay them for you.

Fight Against Sexual Harassment: How an Attorney Can Help You

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Sexual harassment happens when any unwanted physical or verbal conduct, pleas for sexual favors, and sexual advances unjustly interferes with a person’s job performance, implicitly or explicitly affects his employment, or creates an offensive, hostile, or intimidating work environment.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace because it also considered as a type of sex discrimination.

However, although the government has taken necessary steps in order to protect people from sexual harassment, this illegal action is still being done by some employers today. In fact, statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revealed that around 13,867 sexual discrimination charges were filed with the agency in the Fiscal Year of 2008.

Sexual harassment can be done against you in many ways so it is better if you have enough knowledge with regard to your rights as an employee. You may take legal action against your employer with the help of a Los Angeles harassment attorney if your employer performed one or more of these actions:

Pressured you to go out with him
Touched your hair, body, or clothes
Kissed, patted, or hugged you

Filing a Sexual Harassment Complaint

EEOC is the agency in charge of handling sexual harassment charges. If you are planning to file a complaint with the agency, you will be required to provide the following information:

Your name, contact number, and address
The date when the violation occurred
A brief account of the alleged violation

It is advisable that you act right away after you have been sexually harassed by your employer because there are imposed time limits when it comes to filing complaints with EEOC. Most of the laws that are being enforced by the agency require the aggrieved party to file a complaint with it before going to a court.

Under EEOC’s rules, the complaint should be filed within 180 days after the alleged violation happened. This time limit is imposed in the aim of protecting the rights after the aggrieved party.

It may be extended to 300 days if your complaint is also covered by a local or state anti-discrimination law.

Once the agency received the complaint, it will conduct an unbiased investigation in order to determine if you were sexually harassed by your employer. If the investigation revealed that the violation occurred, it will first try to resolve the problem. However, if the settlement talks failed, it can then file a court case on your behalf.

If you want to know more about sexual harassment cases, you can consult a Los employment lawyer of Mesriani Law Group by visiting 12400 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 810 Los Angeles CA 90025.

8 Important Guidelines in Classifying Independent Contractors

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Nowadays, employers are having a hard time dealing with tax records and offering benefits to their employees. Because of this, there are employers who wrongfully categorize their employees as independent contractors. In doing this, they would not need to process certain documents and provide benefits that are only applicable to employees.

However, under labor laws, an independent contractor has several characteristics that are not applicable to employees. Employers can only identify a worker as an independent contractor if:

The worker sets his own time of work. This is because independent contractors work using their own timetables.
He has more than one employer or “client”. This means his skills and services are available to other clients, which is not a characteristic of an employee.
He seldom performs routine tasks and activities. Independent contractors specialize in skill-based tasks. Because of this, he is not paid in a regular rate like a regular employee.
The worker prepares his own working tools and equipment. Because he is on-call, he brings his things anywhere.
His stay in the company, as stated in the agreement, is temporary. Most independent contractors work in the company until the project he is working on is finished. Depending on the contents of the contract, he also has the option to leave the job at-will.
He pays ads for other companies to hire him. If his name is listed in the yellow pages or on billboards and posters, he is more likely a contractor.
The worker has his own office. Most independent contractors have their own office in case their clients want to drop by.
He is not covered by minimum wage and overtime laws. Because the work of a contractor is not paid on an hourly rate, he is not covered by wage and hour laws.

If these characteristics apply to a worker, then he can be rightly classified as an independent contractor. On the other hand, if these details do not apply to a worker’s condition, he is considered an employee.

Wrongfully classifying a worker to be an independent contractor is an employment violation. If the employee can prove that he was wrongfully categorized as a contractor, he can demand compensation from the employer. Some of the benefits he can get include employee benefits, back pay and legal fees.

If you are an employee and you cannot access your employee benefits because you were considered as an independent contractor, you may seek legal help. There are a number of expert Los Angeles employment lawyers who can find a resolution to your problem.

How to Protect Yourself from Wrongful Termination Charges

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:29:02 -0800

You have the responsibility of monitoring the performance of your employees and making sure that the company will stand out among all of your rivals. There may be instances when you need to fire an employee for the sake of the company. However, before doing so, you should first make sure that you will not violate his rights in order to prevent him from suing you for wrongful termination.

Here are two ways on how you can protect yourself from any liability when you decided to fire an employee.
1. Know if the employee has signed an employment contract- Before firing a worker, you should first determine if there is an existing employment contract which binds you and him. A written contract is easy to locate. Often times, it is kept in the worker’s personnel file.
However, an implied contract will also be considered as a binding agreement, just like a written contract. If you have promised that you will employ a person for a long period of time, then you will have no choice but to fulfill it.
You should be careful with what you say or promise to an employee because it might be used against you later on. You can unintentionally make an implied contract during company meetings or even casual conversations.
2. Make sure that you have a good reason for terminating an employee- If you have determined that no contract exists between you and your employee, you are then free to fire him. However, you should make sure that you have a good reason for doing so and that you will not violate his rights.
You may be spared from any liability if you are firing an employee due to business-related reasons. For example, you cannot fire an employee just because he is having an affair with another woman, but you can do so if his personal life negatively affects his work performance.
Here are some examples of valid reasons for firing your worker:

Low productivity
Insubordination
Habitual tardiness
Preventing his co-employees from performing their job duties
Habitual absences
Harassing his co-employees
Performing a criminal activity

Meanwhile, you can be sued for wrongful termination if:

You fabricated evidence which shows that your employee has a poor job performance so that you will have a valid reason for firing him.
You fired your employee so that he will not be able to receive his sales commissions.
You fired an employee after he complained that his supervisors performed discriminatory actions against him.

If you have more questions regarding the issues involved in wrongful termination cases, do not hesitate to contact a Los Angeles labor attorney.

How Can Employers Avoid Workplace Disputes

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:12:53 -0800

As an employer, one of your main tasks is to ensure that the workplace will be free from any kind of dispute. Your actions will influence that productivity of your employees and the success of the company’s business operations. You can build a good work environment and avoid workplace disputes if you do the following:

·         Create and enforce fair policies- Implementing fair policies in the workplace will prevent your employees from overstepping their boundaries and doing anything that can be bad for the company’s name and business operations. If they see that these rules are enforced for the sake of the company and everyone in the workplace, there is a higher chance that they will respect and follow it.

·         Communicate with your employees- An open communication should exist between you and your employees because it will make them feel more welcome in the company. You should find time to talk and bond with your employees even if you are too busy.

·         Respect your employees and treat them equally- You should respect the opinions of your employees, even if their views do not match your own. In addition, you should not treat an employee more favorably than the others because it will create tension in the workplace.

·         Provide a safe workplace to your employees. Under the Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) of 1970, you should make sure that the workplace is free from all kinds of hazards. If an employee was injured because of unsafe work conditions, the employer may be required to compensate him for his losses. In order to avoid being involved in this situation, you should implement proper safety guidelines, provide employees with safety equipments and educate or train them on how to respond to emergencies or accidents.

·         Give bonuses and other incentives to productive employees - You should give bonuses and other incentives to motivate employees who perform well or do their job properly. It will encourage them to become more productive.

·         Give unbiased evaluations to your employees- It is advisable that you provide evaluations to your employees which are based on their work performance, not on your personal opinion about them. Even if you do not like a certain employee, you should be honest when evaluating his work performance because failure to do so may create problems in the workplace.

If you have more questions regarding your responsibilities in the workplace or if you want to learn more tips on how to build a good work relationship between you and your employee, it is advisable that you consult a Los Angeles labor attorney.

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Hire Independent Contractors

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:40:57 -0800

Independent contractors are individuals who are only working for themselves. They can control the outcome of their work using different factors like trainings, special license, and experience.

As an employer, you will be required to set the outlines of a certain project and the estimated completion date. The independent contractors will then be allowed to find a way on how to accomplish the task and make their work schedule.

Hiring independent contractors has some advantages like staffing flexibility and cheaper workforce, considering that you do not have to treat them as normal employees. This means you can easily just let go of them once the task in done and you are not required to provide them with employee benefits.

However, you may experience more problems when you hire independent contractors due to the complex relationship that will be built between you and them. Here are five reasons why hiring independent contractors is a disadvantage:

1. Less control- Independent contractors can work freely, unlike employees need to comply with the company’s polices. Remember, if you meddle too much on their work, they may already be considered as employees. If this is the case, you will have to provide them with workplace compensation insurance and pay payroll taxes.

2. Ownership issues- Independent contractors may be hired to invent new gadgets like laptops or cell phones. They may be seen as the rightful owner of these gadgets, unless they have signed an agreement which will transfer intellectual property rights to the company.

3. Liability for injuries- Workers who were injured while doing their job obligations may receive financial assistance through the workers’ compensation insurance. They will not file a case against you in exchange for benefits which can be used to pay for their medical bills. On the other hand, independent contractors are not entitled to receive benefits from this insurance. They may sue you in order to be compensated for their injuries.

4. Short duration of employment- Independent contractors are hired to do projects which may be completed for weeks or months. After they have done their work, their ties with you and the company will end.

5. Termination problems- You can only fire an independent contractor if he violated the terms included in the agreement. If you terminated him without valid reasons, he will have the right to file a case against you.

If you have more questions regarding the role of independent contractors, do not hesitate to seek legal help from a Los Angeles employment attorney. He will specify the different advantages and disadvantages of hiring them and tell you if they are suitable for the job that you want to be done.