Discrimination

Subscribe to Discrimination

Government Code section 12850 and related regulations require all California employers to display the “California Law Prohibits Workplace Discrimination and Harassment” poster in a conspicuous place where employees gather. The Civil Rights Department published an updated version of this poster that includes information about protections for employees taking bereavement leave or leave for reproductive loss…

Last year the California Supreme Court agreed to take up a question from the 9th Circuit regarding the evidentiary standard for whistleblower retaliation claims brought under California Labor Code section 1102.5. The California Supreme Court in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc, held that Labor Code section 1102.6 “provides the governing framework for…

State legislatures continue to pass laws designed to enhance pay equity and transparency, with the laws of California and Colorado effective in 2021. The California law requires employee pay data reporting by race and gender, and the Colorado law requires robust pay and promotional transparency.

California

Under California’s pay data reporting law (SB 973), most…

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) continues to advance toward the March 31, 2021 pay data collection deadline.  When SB 973 was passed in September, DFEH had six months to develop and implement a data collection system that could accomplish the task.  It is delivering.  DFEH issued its first guidance on November…

At the end of California’s 2020 legislative session, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 973 (SB 973), which created pay data reporting requirements for employers starting in March 2021. However, the new legislation left some uncertainty for employers in several areas.

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) promised in mid-October that it would be…

Whether the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses prevent civil courts from adjudicating employment discrimination claims brought by employees against their religious employer, where the employee carried out important religious functions, is the question presented in two consolidated cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, No. 19-267, and St. James…

Years after California legalized recreational use of cannabis, employers continue to struggle with determining their rights and liabilities regarding employees who engage in that activity.

In 2016, a majority of California voters approved Proposition 64, titled “The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act” (Prop 64). Prop 64 permits adults 21 years of…

With the future of the EEOC’s pay data collection efforts unclear, California’s effort to legislate its own race- and sex-based pay data reporting requirements likewise has stalled, for now.

Since July, California’s Senate Bill 171 (requiring private employers with at least 100 employees to submit an annual report of employee pay data broken down by…

In an important step for California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 188 into law on July 3, 2019. SB 188 or also known as, the CROWN ACT, “Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair,” clarifies the definition of race for the workplace and educational institutions to include, but not limited to, hair texture…