What is Wrongful Termination?
Employment is At-Will with Exceptions The vast majority of employers and workers in California have heard the term “at-will” employment. Employers often interpret at-will employment to mean that employees could be terminated at the employer’s will. Workers often interpret it to mean it that employers may not terminate an employee without a reason or notice or for unfair reasons. The legal standards are somewhere in the middle. In California, “at-will” employment means that an employer may terminate the employment relationship for any reason or for no reason at all. On the flip side, employees may also quit for any reason or for no reason at all with or without notice. However, on the employer side, there are certain restrictions or exceptions to the “for any reason or for no reason at all.” That is, employers may not terminate (or make conditions such that an employee has no other choice but to quit) for a wrongful reason. In other words, employers may terminate the relationship so long as the reason for the termination is not discriminatory, in breach of a contractual … Continue reading
New Law – Request for Disability and Religious Accommodation a Protected Activity
Yesterday (July 16, 2015) Governor Brown signed AB 987 into law, making it an unlawful employment practice for an employer or other covered entity to retaliate or otherwise discriminate against a person for “requesting” an accommodation for physical or mental disability or religious belief or observance, regardless of whether the request was granted. Doing so would constitute disability discrimination and/or religious discrimination. This bill was introduced in response to the Court of Appeal’s decision in Rope v. Auto-Clor System of Washington, Inc. (2013) 220 Cal.App.4th 635, where the court found no authority that a request for accommodation, without more, supports a FEHA retaliation claim). The new law now provides that legal authority. New Law Makes REQUESTING Disability and Religious Accommodations a Protected Activity Existing law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation of, among other things, a person’s disability and religious beliefs and prohibits discrimination against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under the act or because the person has filed a complaint. This new law takes it a step further and prohibits an employer from retaliating or … Continue reading