Brea

It can be embarrassing, disheartening and confusing to experience discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or wage and hour violations on the job. Even knowledgeable laypeople may not be sure whether they’ve experienced an injustice in the workplace. It’s imperative to seek knowledgeable legal counsel. Call seasoned Brea employment lawyers if you suspect you need legal help filing a lawsuit against your employer. Our firm uses insights and experience gained over 20 years to fight for our clients’ interests, and we can explain your legal options to you.

Wage theft is disturbingly common. In some cases, failure to pay appropriate wages is inadvertent, the consequence of an employer failing to seek legal counsel to advise on what legal responsibilities are owed. In other cases, however, employers intentionally fail to pay minimum wage or overtime; wage theft can also occur when an employer withholds wages, salaries, bonuses, benefits, commissions, tips, business expense reimbursement, meal and rest breaks, hazard pay, or sick leave. It can also happen if your employer fails to pay waiting time penalties for a late final paycheck or requires you to work off the clock. You can seek remedies for wage theft. However, in many cases, the potential recovery in such a lawsuit is too small to warrant bringing a solo lawsuit. In such cases, when there are multiple employees in the same position with regard to their employer, it can be worthwhile to pursue a class action lawsuit. These are challenging cases, and it’s important to seek the help of the knowledgeable Brea class action attorneys of Calderone Law Firm once you realize there may be multiple, similar wage theft or other claims against your employer.

Discrimination occurs when an employer takes an adverse employment action against you based on a protected trait. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which provides greater protection than federal and local anti-discrimination laws, prohibited adverse employment actions can be taken with regard to any business practice including job applications, interviews, hirings, transferences, promotions, terminations, working conditions, and participation in apprenticeship or training programs. FEHA applies to companies with at least five employees and protects a broad array of traits including race, color, religion, marital status, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, medical condition, genetic information, mental disability, physical disability military/veteran status, request for leave based on a serious health condition, request for family care leave, request for pregnancy disability leave, retaliation for reporting patient abuse, and age over 40.

Often workers are the ones who are best positioned to know whether there are legal violations occurring in a workplace, and the law recognizes this. California whistleblower laws protect you from enduring retaliation on the job for reporting your employer’s illegal acts or misconduct to authorities. This means your employer is not allowed to retaliate against you in the following ways: wrongful termination, demotion, failure to promote, unfair performance reviews, and refusals to permit you to participate in training you need to do to fulfill your job duties. Under state law, you are protected against retaliation as a whistleblower even if it turns out that you were wrong about your employer committing an illegal act or misconduct, as long as your actions in reporting were based on a reasonable belief.

You may find it challenging to go up against your employer. Companies typically have greater resources than their employees do, and they may retain a knowledgeable legal team. When you have a dispute with your employer involving discrimination, harassment, wage and hour violations or whistleblower retaliation, you must discuss your situation with a seasoned Brea employment law attorney. Our founder, Vincent Calderone, has over two decades of experience representing workers in litigation and can put that experience to work for you and your lawsuit. Please contact us online or call us at (424) 348-8290.