Employers have numerous obligations to meet when it comes to their employees. The employment relationship is governed by a broad range of intricate rules. Unfortunately, not all employers understand their obligations, and some flout the rules. Working families may experience hardship when an employer fails to abide by laws in place to protect employees. If you believe you have a claim for wage and hour violations, retaliation, harassment, or discrimination, you should call the seasoned Norwalk employment attorneys of Calderone Law Firm about your potential lawsuit. We provide clients with personalized service and use insights collected over 20 years to pursue the best possible outcome in every case.
Wage and Hour LawyerCalifornia employers are required to abide by wage and hour laws. These laws are complicated. In most cases, state wage and hour laws provide greater protection to employees. Wage and Wage and hour lawsuits may minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks, or equipment. In California, overtime is paid when an employee works over a certain number of hours. Specifically, when you, as an employee, work more than eight hours in a workday or more than 40 hours in a workweek, your employer should be paying you one and a half times your regular rate of pay. If you work more than 12 hours in a workday or more than 8 hours on the seventh consecutive workday in a workweek, you should be paid double your regular rate of pay. While the amount of damages in an individual’s lawsuit may be too small to justify the expense of a lawsuit, it may be appropriate to bring a class action lawsuit with the help of a seasoned Norwalk employment law attorney who has experience with class actions.
Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Lawsuits in NorwalkDiscrimination involves negative employment actions taken against an employee because he or she belongs to a protected class or has a protected characteristic. Most often, the California Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA) offers the greatest range of protected traits and applies to even small workplaces with at least five employees. Under federal law, harassment is one form of discrimination. Other discriminatory actions include failure to promote, demotion, firing, disparate pay, and layoffs. Under FEHA, workplace harassment occurs when someone mistreats another in the workplace based on a protected trait, in a way that falls outside the harasser’s job description. For example, if your coworkers physically beat you up after they discover you’re transgender, you would have a claim for gender identity discrimination under FEHA.
Norwalk Whistleblower Protection LawyersThere are several California whistleblower retaliation laws that forbid your employer from retaliating against you because you reported workplace violations or misconduct. They apply in different contexts such as workplace safety or in health care settings. Retaliation includes, at its more extreme, termination, but also includes demotion, unfair performance reviews, layoffs, harassment, threats to report you to ICE, and failure to provide training needed to do your job. You are protected against retaliatory actions so long as your belief that there was a violation was reasonable. Your employer can’t penalize you for reporting crimes to the police, reporting false claims, or reporting regulatory violations to an agency responsible for enforcing the regulations. For example, if you work for a contractor who commits a host of workplace safety violations, endangering you and your coworkers, and you report this to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and then get harassed by your supervisor and the foreman and receive unfair performance reviews, this would be retaliation. In a case of constructive termination, an employer makes working conditions so intolerable that an employee cannot exercise any choice except to resign.
Consult an Experienced Norwalk Employment LawyerWhen reporting a violation or bringing a lawsuit, it’s important that you go up against your employer on an even playing field. This means retaining knowledgeable Norwalk legal counsel. The seasoned attorneys of Calderone Law Firm represent clients in discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and wage and hour suits. Our founder, Vincent Calderone, has represented employees for more than 20 years. Please contact us online or give us a call at (424) 348-8290.