California Legal Team

Employment Law

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act among others. The laws apply to applies to employers, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Sex-Based Discrimination

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protect individuals against employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin, and religion. Title VII and FEHA applies to most employers, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. It is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of his/her sex in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment. Title VII and FEHA also prohibit employment decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions about abilities, traits, or the performance of individuals on the basis of sex. Title VII and FEHA prohibit both intentional discrimination and neutral job policies that disproportionately exclude individuals on the basis of sex and that are not job related.

Race/Color or National Origin Discrimination

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protect individuals against employment discrimination on the bases of race and color, as well as national origin, sex, and religion. Title VII and FEHA apply to most employers with including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. Equal employment opportunity cannot be denied any person because of his/her racial group or perceived racial group, his/her race-linked characteristics (e.g., hair texture, color, facial features), or because of his/her marriage to or association with someone of a particular race or color. Title VII and FEHA also prohibit employment decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions about abilities, traits, or the performance of individuals of certain racial groups. Title VII's and FEHA's prohibitions apply regardless of whether the discrimination is directed at Whites, Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Arabs, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, multi-racial individuals, or persons of any other race, color, or ethnicity.

Age Discrimination

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age. The ADEA's protections apply to both employees and job applicants. Under the ADEA, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/her age with respect to any term, condition, or privilege of employment, including hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training.

It is also unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on age or for filing an age discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation under the ADEA.

Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy for Whistleblowing/Opposing Illegal Conduct.

The law prohibits the termination of employees in violation of numerous public policies. These include "whistleblowing," which is an employer's retaliation for an employee reporting an employer's illegal activities or refusing to participate in illegal activities.

Disability Discrimination

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibit private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. The ADA's nondiscrimination standards also apply to federal sector employees under section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, and its implementing rules.

An individual with a disability is a person who:

• 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.

Retaliation

An employer may not fire, demote, harass or otherwise "retaliate" against an individual for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposing discrimination. The same laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, and disability, as well as wage differences between men and women performing substantially equal work, also prohibit retaliation against individuals who oppose unlawful discrimination or participate in an employment discrimination proceeding.