Riverside County

It’s common for laypeople to be unsure about whether the treatment they’ve received from their employer counts as discrimination. Sometimes it’s unclear whether wage and hour law has been violated. Unlike your employer, you probably don’t have significant resources. It’s important that you retain an attorney to advise you and put on equal footing to your boss. Whether you have a discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, or wage and hour lawsuit, you should talk to a tenacious Riverside County employment lawyer who can evaluate your case and decide the best course of action. If we represent you, the Calderone Law Firm will use insights gathered over twenty years to fight for your rights.

As an employee, you are protected under the California Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA) so long as your employer has at least 5 employees. There is an exception for sexual harassment—you are protected against sexual harassment even if you are your employer’s only employee. Discrimination in Riverside County occurs when your employer takes an adverse action against you based on a trait protected under FEHA (or federal law). Adverse employment actions can occur in the context of job applications, interviews, hirings, promotions, training, demotions, or terminations. For example, if you are not hired as a truck driver because your prospective employer discovers you’re Muslim during your interview, you may have a religious discrimination claim. Similarly, if you are a salesperson who transitions, and your boss decides you should no longer have a customer-facing position because of it, you may have grounds to sue for gender identity discrimination.

California Labor Code section 1102.5 protects employees against whistleblower retaliation. Whistleblowers are those employees that reveal information to the government or a law enforcement agency or another person with authority over them; they are protected against retaliation for revealing said information when they have reasonable cause to think the information shows a violation of state, federal or local statutory violations or regulations.

Recognizing that employees are often in the best position to know of any legal violations by their employer, the law specifies that uour employer may not adopt, make or enforce any sort of rule that would prevent you from whistleblowing. You also cannot be retaliated against for refusing to be involved with illegal actions. In truth, employers do retaliate against whistleblowers by firing them, demoting them, negatively writing them up, or refusing to provide them with necessary training. However, if you face any of these sorts of actions because you’re a whistleblower, you can sue to seek reinstatement, the restoration of benefits, the payment of lost wages, and you can also seek civil monetary penalties.

California labor laws provide substantial protection to nonexempt employees. As a nonexempt employee, you are protected by wage and hour laws that pertain to overtime, minimum wage, rest and meal breaks, equipment, and uniforms. These protections do not apply to you if you are an independent contractor or exempt employee; in some cases, employers misclassify workers to avoid the duties owed to nonexempt employees, such as paying minimum wage or providing rest breaks.

There are situations in which the potential damages in a case are going to be too small to bring an individual lawsuit. In such situations, you may be able to join together with similarly situated employees to bring a class action lawsuit. For example, if you were occasionally asked to stay late without clocking those hours so that your employer wouldn’t have to pay overtime, and your coworkers faced the same circumstances, you might have grounds to recover damages in a class action. It’s important to retain a knowledgeable class action lawyer like those of Calderone Law Firm if you proceed along this path.

Call the seasoned Riverside County attorneys of Calderone Law Firm about any possible whistleblowing, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or wage and hour violations. Our founder, Vincent Calderone, has more than 20 years of experience representing employees in cities like Corona, Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, and Riverside. Please contact us online or call us at (424) 348-8290.