California is known for its progressive employment laws, including comprehensive disability insurance, paid family leave, and employee leave laws. While these programs share the common goal of supporting employees during times of need, they differ in several key aspects. 1.…
National origin harassment is a form of discrimination that occurs in the workplace. It occurs when employees are harassed because of their national origin or ethnicity. National origin harassment involves the use of languages, jokes, or other forms of intimidation…
The FMLA’s anti-interference provision bars conduct that “`tends to chill’ an employee’s willingness to exercise” rights under the statute. See, Brown v. City of Tucson, 336 F.3d 1181 (9th Cir. 2003) (Holding that close temporal proximity between the protected activity…
During the Civil War, people were selling defective food and arms to the Union military. This law, sometimes referred to as the Lincoln Law, prohibits such dishonest transactions. It prohibits making and using false records to get those claims paid.…
The EEOC enforces Title I of the ADA. That agency will accept complaints of illegal discrimination based on mental or physical disability. Once an employee has established that he or she is disabled and claims that he or she has…
Someone with a disability doesn’t necessarily need a job accommodation. Remember that we select people and place them in jobs if they are qualified for the performance of the essential functions, with or without a job accommodation. Someone with diabetes…
An essential job function is defined as “a portion of a job assignment that cannot be removed from the job without significantly changing the nature of the job.” An essential function is highly specialized, and the incumbent has been hired…
Caring for oneself, seeing, hearing, touching, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, sitting, reaching, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, interacting with others, and working all are considered “major life activities.” Also included are major bodily functions such as…
Employers are required to consider as disabled anyone with a condition that “substantially limits,” but does not “significantly restrict,” a major life activity. Even though the limitation might be reduced or eliminated with medication or other alleviation, the treatment may…
Following the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Sutton v. United Airlines and in Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc., v. William, Congress felt that the Court had been too restrictive in its interpretation of who qualifies as disabled. It was the…