Westlake Village

You may find it hard to figure out whether you’ve experienced discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation or a wage and hour legal violation. The laws that employers must follow in employment relationships can be intricate. It’s important to seek knowledgeable legal counsel if you believe you may have a claim. Call the seasoned Westlake Village employment lawyers of Calderone Law Firm about your potential lawsuit. Our firm provides personalized service and uses insights gathered over 20 years to pursue best outcomes for our clients.

Discrimination occurs when a Westlake Village employer takes an adverse employment action against you because you have a trait that local, state or federal law protects. In many cases, state law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), provides the greatest protection—it protects employees of companies that have at least five employees and protects the broadest range of traits. Under FEHA, workplace harassment happens if somebody in the workplace mistreats another person in the workplace based on a protected trait, in a manner that falls outside the job description of the harasser. For example, if your coworkers mock you for being Latino, and your employer refuses to protect you, you may have a claim for ancestry or race discrimination. Similarly, if you have a hearing disability and your boss fires you for requesting a reasonable accommodation, you have a claim for disability discrimination.

You should not be retaliated against for reporting legal violations in your workplace. California whistleblower protection laws provide that you are protected from retaliation even if you turn out to be wrong about the legal violation, so long as you reasonably believed that what you notified authorities about was a legal violation. You may be wondering what counts as retaliation. It can include a range of punitive actions including wrongful termination, firing, demotion, unfair write-ups, failure to promote you, harassment, or refusal to allow you training you need for the job. Your boss can’t punish you for telling the police about a workplace crime, for reporting that the company made a false claim, or that the company violated OSHA safety regulations. For example, if you work for a hospital, and discover your boss is reporting false Medicare claims, you are protected against retaliation if you report it. These situations can be tricky, however, so it’s wise to consult a lawyer once you realize you may want to report your employer’s wrongdoing.

Wage and hour lawsuits involve minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks, and equipment. California law requires employers to pay one and one-half times a worker’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over eight in a workday or more than 40 hours in a workweek. Employers must pay double time for hours worked beyond 12 hours in a workday and hours worked beyond eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek. Wage theft is common, but in many cases, the potential damages are quite small, even when the theft has occurred over some months. When multiple employees have the same or similar claims of wage theft against an employer, they can join together in a class action lawsuit to sue for damages. Class action suits can be difficult to mount—it’s imperative to seek an attorney who understands the ins and outs of these types of cases. Early on, if we represent you, we’ll need to file a motion for certification showing that the claims at issue meet requirements of commonality, numerosity, adequacy and typicality.

It can be stressful to go up against your employer. The company likely has significantly more resources than you do. Retention of a seasoned Westlake Village employment law attorney may level the playing field in court. Calderone Law Firm handles discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and wage and hour lawsuits. Our founder, Vincent Calderone, has accumulated over 20 years of experience representing employees in employment litigation. Please contact us online or call us at (424) 348-8290.