Los Angeles Employment Lawyer Blog

In a recent case that epitomizes a sad trend in business today, multiple employees at Dollar Tree filed suit against the company claiming that supervisors had “shaved” time or even “deleted” time records to avoid paying overtime. In a story that is becoming all too familiar, two employees claim that their time records for stocking shelves at a local California chain retail store, Dollar Tree, were not accurately reflecting their actual work time, and their checks were coming up short. The lawsuit claims that managers tried to excuse the inaccurate records by naming the shelve-stockers as exempt managers who were salaried, and therefore unable to get overtime pay. But California law is clear, overtime for these employees must be paid, and any time over 40 hours a week may be eligible for overtime, even for managerial salaried staff.

Dollar Tree is not the only culprit though. Many larger companies are looking for a way to increase profits in a time of economic downturn, and are looking at ways to cut expenses to do so. Unfortunately, is easier for these companies to adjust the time records rather than trying to cut salaries to below-minimum-wage amounts. This kind of business ethic has another name: fraud. Both Federal laws and California law prohibits adjustments like this that leave an employee shortchanged.

It may take time for an employee to notice that they are not receiving all of their overtime pay. Often it is not suddenly a missing hole in your paycheck, but hours that are suddenly not recorded, time sheets that are changed, or a rate change that is only time and a quarter rather than time and a half. Employees have to keep a guarded eye on their pay stubs to notice the difference. However, if you suspect that you are being shortchanged overtime pay or rate, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help. You may be able to recover your lost wages and overtime pay and get the paycheck that you worked hard to earn.

It may be illegal for your employer to withhold wages or refuse to pay you overtime for over eight (8) hours of work per day or forty (40) hours per week. California law provides even more protection than federal laws by both raising the minimum wage, providing higher overtime wage profits, and protecting more classes of workers. The law states that all non-exempt employees must be paid overtime (at a rate of not less than time and one half of their regular rate) for working more than 40 hours in one week (seven days in a row). In order to determine whether or not an employee is eligible for overtime pay, an employer first must classify the employee as “exempt” or “non-exempt". In order to determine which category an employee falls under, an employer needs to look at the job title, pay and specific job duties. According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, “general overtime provisions are that a nonexempt employee 18 years of age or older, or any minor employee 16 or 17 years of age who is not required by law to attend school and is not otherwise prohibited by law from engaging in the subject work, shall not be employed more than eight hours in any workday or more than 40 hours in any workweek unless he or she receives one and one-half times his or her regular rate of pay for all hours worked over eight hours in any workday and over 40 hours in the workweek.”

While many people assume that an exempt employee is salaried and a non-exempt employee is hourly, this is not necessarily the case. Even managerial positions that are salaried may qualify for overtime pay for hours over 40 per week. Exemptions are classes of workers that do not have the same overtime pay qualifications. These are very specific classes of workers from taxicab drivers to computer software employees. However, most employees do qualify for overtime pay, especially for over 40 hours of work in a week. Misclassifying a non-exempt employee as exempt can result in owing an employee expensive overtime pay.

If you have not been receiving your overtime pay, you have lost wages from your employer, or you are not receiving the correct amount of overtime wages that California Law protects, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

According to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), "an individual is considered to have a disability if s/he has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment." While many employers accommodate applicants and employees in wheelchairs, using canes, or even those with allergic reactions to scents (creating for example a scent-free workplace), many have been slow to recognize that mental disabilities are protected as well. Partly because these disabilities are often suffered quietly, and because you cannot look at someone and see their clinical depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder (“OCD”) at first glance, it takes more to protect your rights when you have a mental illness or mental disorder.

One thing to note is that your employer cannot accommodate a disability they do not know about, and it is not their duty to ask you to disclose this information. But if you do have a mental disability, and it is impairing your ability to work without accommodation, you have every right to speak with your employer and develop a comprehensive and flexible accommodation to allow you to work successfully at your job. Sometimes these illnesses were not there when you began your employment, such as severe depression or post-traumatic stress syndrome, but things have changed and you now face this illness while struggling to meet your work requirements. You should begin by going to your immediate supervisor and telling them you need to disclose a medical disability for which you would like to have accommodations to allow you to perform to the best of your ability.

Accommodations can be decided between you and your doctor, as well as you and your employer. Your employer has a duty to provide you with any reasonable accommodation, and may not retaliate against you or fire you do to this mental disability. If you are not given the opportunity to develop a full and comprehensive accommodation plan at your place of work, or your employer refuses to adjust your accommodation, you should call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help. Remember, you must take the steps to let your employer know about your disability and to work with them to develop a reasonable request for accommodations. But if you cannot, or you find yourself being discriminated against due to your disclosure, the law protects you and your right to work.

People of short stature (or dwarfs) often find themselves victim to discrimination by people both in and out of the workplace. While much is changing about how the world respects and views dwarfs, laws have been enacted to protect the legal rights of those little people in the office. The leading causes of dwarfism are: Achondroplasia, Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenital (“SEDc”), Diastrophic dysplasia, Pseudoachondroplasia, Hypochondroplasia and Osteogenesis Imperfecta and all are recognized by the Americans with Disability Act (“ADA”). The ADA prevents protected categories of people with disabilities from being discriminated against at any point in the employment process, from hiring to firing and everything in between. Many times, little people bear the brunt of the discrimination from the moment they walk into their interview. As nationally recognized law professor Paul Steven Miller experienced personally, “Fresh out of college, packing a sparkling resume, Miller drew the attention of dozens of prestigious law firms. None of them would hire him -- not after the face-to-face interviews. Every one of the firms ruled out the 4-foot-5-inch candidate as soon as they laid eyes on him. One senior partner told Miller that bringing him aboard might scare away clients.”

Unfortunately, even a Harvard educated lawyer had this kind of response in trying to find a job in today’s business world. The discrimination for other jobs in the service industry especially is even worse. But it doesn’t have to be. Besides the revolutionary change in media coverage such as TLC’s “Little People, Big World,” the Federal and California governments have worked to apply these laws to little people to protect their rights and to give them the opportunities that all taller people have. You should be evaluated based on your qualifications, not your height.

If you are a person of short stature, and you have experienced discrimination in the workplace, the law may protect your rights and enable you to compensation for lost wages, emotional distress and even punitive damages. Call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Employees often are not well-informed of their rights in the workplace. As a California employee, you are protected by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) which enacted the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) against discrimination, harassment and various employment rights. Employees are protected under Federal law through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). There are many illegal reasons why someone may be discriminated against at work.

These include: age discrimination, racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, national origin discrimination, pregnancy discrimination or gender or sex discrimination. These are all illegal and if you have been the victim of this type of discrimination, you have rights!

Employees are also protected against a hostile or harassing work environment. Sexual harassment both in and out of the workplace is also forbidden by law in several situations. In addition, employment law covers such areas as: wrongful termination, whistle blowing, wage & overtime claims, worker’s compensation, breach of contract, implied & oral contracts, non-competition clauses, disability & workers’ comp, and pregnancy leave.

If you have been the victim of a rights violation at work in the State of California, call us now for a free consultation at the Law Offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP. We are here to help you! (1-800-ALAWPRO or 1-800-252-9766).

A Modesto, California woman was fired due to OCD (or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as a violation of the American’s With Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and California’s counterpart, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) in a case settled in 2001. The woman, a transcriptionist, was an exceptional worker in all regards, until she became ill with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (“OCD”). While she went to her doctors for treatment, and communicated her disability to her workplace, it did not protect her from eventually being fired by her employer. While they had made a small effort to accommodate her disability, they would not continue the conversation or allow modifications when the accommodations proved to be failing. After her unfortunate dismissal, she filed for failure to reasonably accommodate her disability and for wrongful termination. “Under the ADA, the term “discriminate” is defined as including ‘not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, unless such covered entity can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of such covered entity.’”

While her employer did try to accommodate her once during her over eight years of employment, they did not allow her to modify her requests for accomodation when they proved not to be working. At all times, though her disability often prevented her from coming into work at all, she indicated her desire to perform her job duties, and, when she was able to work, she proved exceptional in meeting standards of review. Her request to be allowed to transcribe from home was summarily denied, and she was dismissed in 1995. The Court held that though she was offered one accommodation, the discussion must continue. “Employers who fail to engage in the interactive process in good faith, face liability for the remedies imposed by the statute if a reasonable accommodation would have been possible.”

The Court’s holding has become the new basis for telecommuting requests for accommodations, and most courts have looked to it as a general requirement that your employer must have an interactive and engaging process in good faith that allows you to try to fulfill your duties with reasonable accommodation. If you are located in California and involved in a similar situation, or you believe that you need reasonable accommodations due to a qualified disability, call Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Humphrey v. Memorial Hospitals Ass'n, 239 F.3d 1128, C.A.9 (Cal.), 2001.

Age discrimination in the workplace is perhaps one of the subtlest, and hardest to prove, forms of illegal discrimination against an employee. Federal and State law make it illegal for your employer to discriminate against you based on your age at any point in the employment process from hiring to firing, promotions, wages, benefits, assignments, and internal trainings or teams. Your employer is legally able to inquire about your age if it is related to forms for tax purposes, or for your records, but not for any illegitimate purpose. What constitutes an illegitimate purpose is very subjective: say that you are up for a promotion at a job where you have been working for many years. If your employer asks you during the course of your promotion interview about your age, this is probably an illegal consideration and you should document it.

Your employer can fire you for any legitimate purpose not related to your age. This is often very hard to prove because the employer can purport many reasons why they let you go, including cost-savings for the business. However, even if they base their firing on cost-savings it is illegal to use your retirement plan, pension, or insurance costs as part of why it would be more inexpensive to take on a younger employee. These factors show a bias against your age, and that is illegal.

While most of these factors are very hard to prove, it is possible and easier to see when they are done on a systematic and continuous basis. Usually, when an employer decides to let go of their older employees to save money- it isn’t just that one employee. If you have noticed that your business is letting go of several of the over-40 year olds, or those with upcoming retirement or pension plans, your business may be discriminating based on age and the law protects your rights. You may be entitled to lost wages and emotional considerations for your loss. If you are located in California, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Disability rights include many rights both for the employer and the employee. For example, you may be terminated if you cannot perform your duties on the job. However, the law provides that you must be given reasonable accommodations. This means that if you provide documentation of a qualified disability, you must be given the opportunity by your employer to develop a process to find a reasonable accommodation to allow you to perform your job even with your disability.

Accommodations do not include violating attendance policy, poor work performance, or substandard activity on the job. However, accommodations such as having to miss work for doctor’s appointments, having set breaks in the work day, or other reasonable requests that allow you to perform your job to an adequate degree are all perfectly acceptable.

While there is some disagreement as to whether you must have a “qualified” disability to be eligible for accommodation, all employers must give you the opportunity to engage in a process of accommodations if you even appear to have a qualified disability. A good way to think about it is, if you have a disability that is preventing you from performing the job 100% without accommodations, but there is a way to accommodate your disability to allow you to fully perform your job, you should speak with your supervisor and they must try to accommodate you. If your employer refuses, or sets any sort of rule that you must be completely healed, or able to perform the job without accommodations or be fired, you may be able to sue.

If you believe that you are entitled to accommodations in the workplace, or you have been fired due to your disability and are victim to not having had the opportunity to have accommodations in the workplace, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Whistle blowing is when an employee steps forward to “blow the whistle” on an employer who is engaging in suspected illegal activity. The laws in California protect these whistle-blowers. It is illegal for your employer to retaliate against you in the workplace or to terminate you for having reported them to an outside agency. If your employer chooses to retaliate, you may be able to sue for lost wages, emotional distress and punitive damages. It is important that if you have noticed illegal or suspected illegal activity at your place of work, that you follow certain procedures to protect yourself. You should begin by following the procedures of your workplace. If possible, report the activity to your supervisor or even his or her boss if it needs to go to someone else.

If you have good reason to believe the activity is illegal and must be stopped, you should report it to a government or a law enforcement agency. The agency depends on what the illegal activity is. Your employer after this point cannot fire you in retaliation for your claim, whether it proves to be conclusive or not. However, you can still be fired for other reasons. What is important is whether your employer begins to discriminate against you in the workplace because of your whistle blowing, or whether they fire you purely in retaliation for your actions. It is a good idea to keep a record of your actions once you report your employer, and the actions that your employer takes after this period. If you suddenly notice that your pay has decreased, you aren’t being included in meetings, you aren’t being paid for holidays or even that you have lost certain benefits – you may be the victim of retaliation.

If you have blown the whistle on your employer, and you fear that you have become the victim of retaliation or have been fired from your job in response, please call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

While our State and Country are making great strides in equal opportunity and our nation is becoming more diverse and successful for foreign-born and naturalized citizens to become a part of the American Dream, it does not always have a positive effect. More and more discrimination in hiring practices is coming from Hispanics to Blacks, or Asians to Hispanics or other minorities to one another. No longer is the face of discrimination that of a white male. These days it can be an older ethnic woman who refuses to allow a man of another race to apply for a job in her small business. As Anna Park, Regional Attorney for the Los Angeles District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission testified last May in Washington, D.C., “The victims are young and old. The victims are of all races. The alleged perpetrators are no longer just White but are Black, Hispanic, or Asian. The employers are not only the small "mom and pop" stores but also the large Fortune 500 companies. Race discrimination has become more complex.”

Racial discrimination is one of the oldest forms of employment discrimination in the United States. These days reverse-discrimination or minority-to-minority discrimination is becoming more and more common. In California, over one third of the population is Hispanic. There are now more than 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses nationwide and the rate of growth of Hispanic-owned businesses between 1997-2002 was 31%, which was more than triple the national average of 10%. Similar rates have been seen among Asian and Black populations. This means great strides for equality in self-owned businesses, but unfortunately, it means that racial discrimination is thriving among minorities discriminating against other minorities.

Ms. Park also testified how it becomes even more complex when race discrimination is combined with gender discrimination. “[Let us not] forget that women of color continue to suffer from what we would coin compound discrimination. We often see, for example, Hispanic women being subjected to the most egregious of harassment by other Hispanic men in the workforce, and the employer doing nothing to stop it. For example, in EEOC v. Caesars, women were forced to have sex operating out of a "sex" room. In EEOC v. Rivera Vineyard, where the Los Angeles District Office recovered over $1 million for farm worker women who were subjected to sex harassment, some women were actually raped in the fields by Hispanic male supervisors. In EEOC v. Abercrombie and Fitch, where the Los Angeles District Office and the Chicago District Office worked together to recover over $50 million for the company's failure to recruit, hire, promote, and retain minorities because they did not fit the "All American look" that defined Abercrombie. Unfortunately, that "Abercrombie look" was only defined as a White male. In the end, minority women, particularly Black and Hispanic women were the most impacted.”

So what can you do if you find yourself in one of these horrible situations of racial and gender discrimination? Your rights are protected by federal and state laws and you may be entitled to recover for your emotional distress, lost wages and more. Call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Statistics provided by http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/. Ms. Park’s testimony is public record available at http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/meetings/2-28-07/park.html.

Sexual Harassment and Sexual Discrimination are intertwined but two separate illegal practices. Often you hear of both together, and that is because it is often that when someone discriminates against someone due to their gender or sexual orientation, they can also be sexually harassed as well. The key difference is that sexual discrimination is a violation of a civil right – specifically being discriminated against based on your gender when you are hired, paid, promoted (or demoted), or simply not treated as an equal in the workplace. Sexual discrimination is protected by many civil rights statutes (laws) both federally and statewide in California.

Sexual harassment, on the other hand, is conduct that is offensive and creates either a specific situation known as “quid-pro-quo” harassment or a “hostile work environment.” Quid-pro-quo harassment is when your employer demands some sexual favor or makes you consent to offensive sexual conduct or language in order to receive something (such as a promotion or pay-raise). A hostile work environment is where your employer, due to his/her conduct, language, advances or jokes makes you uncomfortable in your place of work. As you can see, these types of sexual harassment often are intertwined. Where you have someone making advances to you, add a demand for sexual services in order to receive something in your workplace and you have both types combined.

Either sexual harassment or sexual discrimination based on your gender, your sexual orientation, whether it is at the time you were hired, or by making a hostile workplace environment is illegal and there are laws both federal and statewide to protect your rights and to keep you safe. The law requires that you follow your company’s policy regarding either discrimination or harassment before you bring suit. If you have been harassed or discriminated against- follow your company policy and make oral and written grievances to your supervisor. If the conduct or discrimination continues, or you have been fired for your gender or for not adhering to sexual advances from someone in your workplace, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Federal and State law make it absolutely illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their national origin (where you are born), your accent, culture, customs, association with specific immigrant groups or religious practices, or simply for being of another ethnicity. In Los Angeles, targeted groups include Arabs, Muslims, Hispanics, and Asian immigrants. Ethnic discrimination in the workplace is often widespread and systematic. Systematic discrimination is when an employer discriminates against all or any members of that ethnicity in the workplace continually over a period of time. Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms. Federal laws such as the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act as well as the Immigration Reform and Control Act, (“IRCA”) prohibit employment discrimination because of national origin against U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and authorized aliens. Under these laws it is illegal to discriminate in any aspect of employment, including:

• hiring and firing


• compensation, assignment, or classification of employees


• transfer, promotion, layoff, or recall


• job advertisements


• recruitment


• testing


• use of company facilities


• training and apprenticeship programs


• fringe benefits


• pay, retirement plans, and disability leave, or


• other terms and conditions of employment

Discriminatory practices under these laws also include:

• harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age


• retaliation against an individual for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in an investigation, or opposing discriminatory practices


• employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of a certain sex, race, age, religion, or ethnic group, or individuals with disabilities, and


• denying employment opportunities to a person because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability. Title VII also prohibits discrimination because of participation in schools or places of worship associated with a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group.”

If you are a member of an ethnic group, you live in California, and you have experienced these or other kinds of harassment and discrimination in your workplace, please call The Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Harassment on its own is not illegal. This means that your boss can be derogatory, rude, demeaning, even outright horrible, but as long as he/she is doing it to everyone in your workplace, or for no apparent reason, it is legal. You can be harassed for any reason other than a “bad reason” – which includes: age, race, sex, sexual orientation, national origin (where you are born – mostly if you are born outside of the United States, though it can be the reverse as well), pregnancy, or a medical disability. Harassment takes many forms, it can be as simple as constant jokes or language which makes the workplace a very uncomfortable place to be, or it can go as far as being fired from a job.

Harassment for any of the protected categories mentioned above is illegal, and you may be entitled to recover damages for emotional distress, lost wages, and even punitive damages. However, the burden of proving that you were harassed falls on you. It helps if you start by going to your supervisor both orally and in writing and letting them know you are uncomfortable. You can also go to your boss’s supervisor. If your company has a written policy about sexual, racial or any other protected category and harassment, follow that policy first. If you are still being harassed, you may need to contact an attorney.

To be clear, your boss can be a jerk. Your boss can harass you for having brown or blonde hair, and it is completely legal. If he/she is harassing everyone in your workplace-it is likely he is just being a jerk, and it is not illegal. But crossing a line and commenting, sending pictures, making derogatory jokes or calling you names, sometimes even asking for sexual favors in return for advancement at work are all illegal and you have rights that are protected by California and Federal law. If you believe you are the victim of harassment on the job, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

Surprisingly, employers in California are still firing workers for all the wrong reasons. California has enacted the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) in order to protect workers from being fired for illegal reasons such as harassment, discrimination, medical disabilities and certain employment situations. Under FEHA, reasons why you CANNOT be fired are due to your:
• race
• gender
• age (specifically those over 40)
• religion
• ethnicity or national origin
• disability
• pregnancy
• sexual orientation.
You also cannot be fired for engaging in protected activities such as filing for a workers compensation claim or for “whistle blowing”, telling on an employer when they are breaking the law . FEHA and other laws give rights to workers who find themselves the victims of wrongful termination or even discrimination or harassment while still employed. Additionally, FEHA works to protect many aspects of a worker’s life including pregnancy and injury on the job.

While FEHA and other laws protect these circumstances, there are many more which are still legal in California. As California is a “Right to Fire” state, an employer can legally fire any employee for any reason that is not specifically prohibited by law. If your boss is making the workplace an inconvenience for you, or has fired you without cause, you can still be legally fired in California. For example, an employer can fire you even if you are doing a good job or just because they don’t like you. But an employer cannot fire you just because you are a certain religion, gender or due to your sexual orientation. One exception to this rule is when an employee has a contract with their employer. In this case, an employee cannot be fired without just cause. FEHA works to identify areas of discrimination and hostile workplace environments that are legally protected and prevent you from being fired illegally.

This law and others specifically protect only certain categories of discrimination. If you have been fired due to your race, gender, age (specifically those over 40), religion, ethnicity or national origin, disability, pregnancy, or sexual orientation, you should contact a lawyer to determine what your rights are and how you can be compensated for your lost wages, benefits, emotional stress, and more. Contact the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

As California is a melting pot of many differing cultures, it can be the unfortunate experience for those who are legally authorized to work in the United States to find themselves the victims of National Origin Discrimination in the workplace. This kind of discrimination is based solely on where an individual is born, or their family nationality, and sometimes even simply based on culture. In Southern California, many groups such as those from Arab, African-American, Armenian, Latino/Hispanic and especially Mexican backgrounds have been the victims of harassment and wrongful termination in the workplace. Discrimination based on these grounds is illegal and California has enacted laws to give each citizen, national, authorized aliens, asylees and refugees a safe and equal opportunity in the workplace.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act, (“IRCA”) prohibits employment discrimination because of national origin against U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and authorized aliens. An employer may not ask if you are a U.S. citizen, but may ask you if you are “legally authorized” to work in the U.S. Many times, National Origin Discrimination is subtle. If your employer is questioning you because of your accent, first language, cultural and traditional background and has fired you or harassed you in the workplace for any of these grounds, you may be entitled to protect your rights under the IRCA.

If you have experienced National Origin Discrimination, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.

After a high-profile case in Oakland, CA, FedEx was found to have discriminated against FedEx Ground Drivers based on their Arab-American ethnicity. According to a press release from the trial attorney for the case, Christopher B. Dolan, “The drivers, Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, both Lebanese-Americans, on May 24, 2006, were awarded $11 million in emotional distress compensatory damages, double the amount sought by their attorney, who demonstrated during the jury trial that they had been the victims of continuous harassment and that the company and a terminal manager had created a hostile work environment on the basis of race and national origin. There was testimony at trial that the drivers were taunted by the manager, called “Arabs”, “camel jockeys”, “terrorists”, “Sand Niggers”, and other ethnic slurs. Both drivers still work for the company.”

The jury took no time in handing down a stiff punitive damages award against FedEx in the amount of $50 million dollars. Punitive damages are a way to dissuade that employer and other companies from engaging in these hostile and derogatory work practices. In California, compensation is awarded not just from the employers, but can also be sought against the individual employees who are the actors or who have failed to stop or prevent harassment and a hostile work environment based on ethnic or national origin discrimination.

The message is clear: California law does not support discrimination against Arabs, Mexicans, Latinos, African-Americans and many more nationalities who have come to Southern California to make a new life for themselves and their families. If you are employed by a workplace that has shown systematic and continuous discrimination based on national origin or ethnicity, you may be entitled to your legally sanctioned compensation. Call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.