California Labor Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Van Vleck Turner & Zaller Law Firm : Employment Litigators : Serving Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose

I am preparing for a press interview about how employers should approach dress code policies and it seems that it always is a surprise to people to learn that that the California Government Code specifically addresses employees' right to wear pants to work.  Section 12947.5 states:

(a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to permit an employee to wear pants on account of the sex of the employee.
(b) Nothing in this section shall prohibit an employer from requiring employees in a particular occupation to wear a uniform.

Also, employers should note, dress standards or requirements for personal appearance need to be flexible enough to take into account religious practices.  While it is lawful for an employer to implement rules about employee physical appearance, grooming, or dress standards, the standards cannot discriminate based on a protected category, such as race or sex.  Also, click here to read a previous post about policies on tattoos, tongue rings, and body piercings in the workplace.

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The California Supreme Court issued its ruling today in Jones v. The Lodge At Torrey Pines.  The Court held:

In Reno v. Baird (1998) 18 Cal.4th 640 (Reno), we held that, although an employer may be held liable for discrimination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.), nonemployer individuals are not personally liable for that discrimination. In this case, we must decide whether the FEHA makes individuals personally liable for retaliation. We conclude that the same rule applies to actions for retaliation that applies to actions for discrimination: The employer, but not nonemployer individuals, may be held liable.

The opinion can be read here.

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Today, the Court will hear argument in Gomez-Perez v. Potter, on whether the Age Discrimination in Employment Act bars retaliation by public employers for the filing of age discrimination complaints.  For more information about the facts of the case, click here.

On Wednesday, the Court is scheduled to hear oral argument in CBOCS West v. Humphries, on whether a race retaliation claim can be brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Section 1981).  Section 1981 provides that any “person within the jurisdiction of the United States” has the same right to “make and enforce” contracts, regardless of their skin color.  Section 1981 protects parties to a contract (both at the time of formation and post-formation).  The argument arises that Section 1981 applies to aspects of the employment relationship because that relationship is considered contractual, but courts have not defined to what extent this protection exists in the employment context.  Employees who have not filed a lawsuits within the time limits proscribed by Title VII (which allows for retaliation claims), often revert to Section 1981 in order to keep their claim alive. 

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The California Supreme Court ruled in employers' favor this week by holding that an employee alleging disability discrimination has the burden of proof to show that he or she can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. The case, Green v. State of California, clarified that it is the employee who must make this showing in order to prove disability discrimination and that the employer does not have to affirmatively prove that the plaintiff was unqualified in order to avoid liability. 

The Court stated:

[W]e disagree with the statement of defendant’s burden of proof adopted by the Court of Appeal and advocated by plaintiff here. Instead, we conclude that the Legislature has placed the burden on a plaintiff to show that he or she is a qualified individual under the FEHA (i.e., that he or she can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation). As explained further below, legislative intent, case law, and legislative history support defendant’s position—a view that also finds support in Evidence Code section 500, which requires a plaintiff to prove each fact essential to the claim for relief he or she is asserting.

However, employers should still approach this subject very carefully. For example, an employer is required to explore with the employee all possible means of reasonably accommodating a person prior to rejecting the person for a job or making any employment related decision.  The accommodation may arise from a mitigating measure, such as medication taken for the primary disability.  An accommodation is reasonable if it does not impose an undue hardship on the employer’s business.  Reasonable accommodation can include, but is not limited to, changing job duties or work hours, providing leave, relocating the work area, and/or providing mechanical or electrical aids.  

Human resource professionals, in-house counsel and/or business owners in California should take a few minutes to review the DFEH’s website for an employer's general obligations in regards to disabled employees, particularly the following helpful documents:

• Disability Under the Fair Employment & Housing Act: What you should know about the law. 

[This is a good resource to refresh the basic requirements of California law, including, what is required by the interactive process, what constitutes an undue hardship and what questions may be asked of an applicant or employee about his or her ability to perform the job.]

• Employment Discrimination Based on Disability  

[This is a brief two page pamphlet published by the DFEH summarizing the law.]

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Fast Company provides an excerpt from Robert I. Sutton’s book, The No Asshole Rule, which assists people in dealing with difficult co-workers and supervisors at work (as well has helps you avoid becoming the employee no one wants to work with). The excerpt:

The company decided that in addition to warnings and training, it was time to quantify the incremental costs of Ethan's bad behavior and deduct it from his bonus....The estimated costs were:

Time spent by Ethan's direct manager: 250 hours valued at $25,000

Time spent by HR professionals: 50 hours valued at $5,000

Time spent by senior executives: 15 hours valued at $10,000

Time spent by the company's outside employment counsel: 10 hours valued at $5,000

Cost of recruiting and training a new secretary to support Ethan: $85,000

Overtime costs associated with Ethan's last-minute demands: $25,000

Anger-management training and counseling: $5,000

Estimated total cost of asshole for one year: $160,000

Through my practice, I’ve come to realize the 5/90 rule: 5% of a company’s employees take up 90% of a company’s human resource department’s resources.  It is usually the same handful of employees that are causing discourse within the company, and these employees are probably not the company’s most productive employees. The most productive employees are too busy working to have time to create problems. 

I think if one could track these hours and costs, Sutton’s estimate would be very accurate. I would also like to add a few figures. If the 10 hours spent by outside employment counsel mentioned above was not enough to prevent a lawsuit from being filed, the costs associated with the time managers spent assisting outside counsel and the direct litigation costs could easily put the total costs well above $300,000. And the lawsuit might not even come from the jerk – it may come from his or her subordinate who thought that he was not treated with respect at the company, and that the company simply ignored his requests to help him deal with the jerk. 

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Any company that has had to defend a case against the EEOC knows of the special aggravation associated with litigation against the Federal Government. Unlike private litigants, who are motivated primarily by money, the EEOC often pursues political, ideological or bureaucratic agendas that can seem downright baffling to private sector lawyers. For example, the EEOC will often pursue claims that the supposed “victim” does not even wish to pursue – the EEOC lost a case recently against Universal where the individual on behalf who the EEOC was litigating the case settled out of court privately, but the EEOC still litigated the case.  Read more about the EEOC's loss here. 

Furthermore, as noted recently by Judge Frederick J. Martone of the Federal District Court of Arizona (who had distinguished career on Arizona’s Supreme Court prior to being appointed to Federal Court) in E.E.O.C. v. Serrano's Mexican Restaurants, LLC, that the EEOC should not utilize press releases as a litigation tool – a common practice by the EEOC. Judge Martone stated:

Our denial of the defendant’s motion is not an expression of our view on the underlying merits or the propriety of the EEOC in using press releases as part of its approach to litigation. Lawyers have a professional obligation to avoid extrajudicial statements that may prejudice a proceeding, see ER 3.6, and an obligation to be truthful in statements to others, see ER 4.1. LRCiv 83.2(d). There is a big difference between promoting the public’s right to know through keeping proceedings public, on the one hand, see Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122 (9th Cir. 2003), and affirmatively issuing press releases, on the other. The United States, and its employees, have a special duty not to injure the reputations of its citizens. Nor should it use press releases as a bargaining tool in litigation.

Judge Martone’s comments are refreshing for employers and individuals who have had to litigate cases against the EEOC and to provide some good language for parties disputing the EEOC’s usual practice of issuing press releases upon settling a case. Hopefully many more judges in the Ninth Circuit follow Judge Martone’s example. 

[Hat tip to Jottings By An Employment Lawyer.]

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Mike Dillon, a General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Sun Microsystems, Inc. has some great thoughts about litigation posted on his blog, The Legal Thing.  He notes:

No. 1 - You only litigate when you have an important interest to protect. Litigation is costly. Incredibly costly. But it is not the expense that is the real issue, it's the diversion of resources. Time employees spend reviewing e-mails and documents, educating lawyers and preparing for depositions is time away from the business. That's the real cost of litigation.

No. 2 - A non-judicial resolution is almost always preferable. When you file a complaint, you are turning over resolution of an issue to a third party - be it a judge, arbitrator or jury. To a great degree you lose control of the outcome.

No. 3 - You litigate when you have a high degree of confidence that you will prevail. Bluffing is for weekend games of Texas Hold'em . When you file suit, you need to have fully evaluated all aspects of the case to ensure that the outcome will be favorable.

No. 4 - You litigate to win. This means that your employees, board and management team fully understand and support the commitment (both financial and time) required to prevail. It also means having seasoned litigation counsel who understand your business and objectives.

While his perspective is towards enforcing a company's intellectual property rights, his analysis can easily be applied to defending employment litigation.  Most notably different is that employers do not chose when to be sued for wrongful termination or wage and hour claims.  However, the company should be completely prepared to defend itself in litigation - in California it is only a matter of when.  In order to develop a strong defense, the company should work with experienced employment attorneys to establish policies that (1) comply with the law and (2) assist the company when a lawsuit is filed.  I mention the second point because while companies have policies that comply with the law, when litigation starts the fact that you have complied with the law is good, but the company needs PROOF that it complied with the law.  An experienced employment litigator can help companies set up policies to document the areas that will most likely be areas of contention during litigation.  For example, California companies should have a clear "at-will" policy signed by the employee, should have a system (preferably computer based) for recording when employees take their meal breaks, and have a clear policy on rest breaks that is in some way acknowledged by employees.

Also, this process of working with an attorney in establishing solid policies is a great period to see if the company likes working with the attorney and (hopefully) develops a good relationship that is critical in any attorney-client relationship.  This also allows the attorney to become familiar with the company and its business and objectives as Mike mentions in No. 4 above.

Finally, companies need to understand Mike's point No. 4 - You litigate to win.  Once a case is filed against a company, the message communicated throughout the company should be that it is extremely important to spend the time necessary to assist the outside counsel in defending the case.  Owners, executives and employees must give their undivided attention to the litigation.  To do otherwise is a costly mistake.

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At issue in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, was whether Ledbetter had filed her employment discrimination case (alleging she was paid less than male coworkers) with the EEOC within 180 days "after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred” as required by Federal law. The Court, in a 5-4 ruling held that Ledbetter had not filed the complaint with the EEOC in a timely manner, therefore barring her claim. 

As Orin Kerr notes at the Volokh Conspiracy, “Ledbetter worked for Goodyear for about ten years, and after she retired in 1998 she sued Goodyear for giving her low raises on account of her gender throughout the term of her employment. Goodyear responded that under federal law she could only sue for any discrimination within the last 180 days, and that no discrimination occurred within the 180-day window.” 

Ledbetter argued that the Court should apply a type of continuing violations doctrine to her situation. Under such a theory, Ledbetter argued that the first discriminatory act (receiving a lower than deserved raise because of her gender) continued with each additional pay raise because pay raises are cumulative over time. Therefore, she alleged that even though she had no evidence that her pay raises during the applicable 180 day time period to file a suit were discriminatory, the original discrimination continued into this time period.  

The Court disagreed with Ledbetter’s argument and held that employees must bring a claim within 180 days of the actual discriminatory act, which in this case was the actual discriminatory pay raise. The dissenting Justices argued that often times employees do not know other employees pay rates, and employees discriminated against may not discover this information until well after the discrimination, therefore it would be unfair to apply the strict 180 day filing period to these types of cases.

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Employers in California and across the country are realizing the increased enforcement of the immigration laws. As this Los Angeles Times article notes that the number of employees arrested for workforce violations has increased to 3,667 in 2006 from 485 in 2002, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This year, federal immigration officials raided restaurants in California and 16 other states and arrested nearly 200 illegal immigrants working for a janitorial company. That followed similar high-profile raids in Maryland, Indiana and Kentucky that amounted to some of the largest and harshest penalties against employers in history.” The article also mentions that two executives of Golden State Fence Co. based in Riverside were found guilty of violating the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and were sentenced to six months of home confinement and fined a combined $300,000 for employing scores of illegal workers. In addition, the company was also required to pay a $4.7 million penalty.

With nearly 90% of illegal immigrants using fraudulent documents, employers are placed in a very difficult situation. Employers must accept the documents presented by the employee to verify employment eligibility if they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee who presents them. However, refusing to accept reasonable documents is discrimination and also violates the anti-discrimination provisions of IRCA.

IRCA requires that employers verify an employee’s eligibility to work, which includes having every employee fill out the Form I-9. The Form I-9 must be kept for 3 years after hire date or 1 year after termination, whichever is longer. The I-9 must be completed on the employee’s first day of work and the employer must complete section two of the form no later than the employee’s third day. 

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This Business Week article about the human resources so-called confidentiality guideline known as the "Need to Know" standard raises a great point many companies could benefit from. The main topic of the article is how HR professionals may inadvertently (or no so inadvertently) disclose information that they said they would only disclose to people who “need to know.”

However, from a legal perspective, and my mantra during sexual harassment prevention training, is that when an employee complains that they or a co-worker is “uncomfortable” with another employee’s behavior or may be a victim of harassment, the HR professional (or supervisor) cannot and should not promise absolute confidentiality. A company has a duty to investigate any potential harassment, and this duty usually falls upon the HR manager. A proper investigation requires speaking to the victim, witnesses, and usually the alleged harasser as well. This probably also requires the disclosure of information reported to the company by the alleged victim. This is not to say that the company can and should not closely guard the facts of the allegation, but promising confidentiality up front can put the company and HR professional in an awkward position because absolute confidentiality cannot always be maintained.

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The U. S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division website provides a self assessment tool for restaurants that employ minors. The assessment covers common violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA ). Restaurant owners should note that this assessment does not cover California state law items. The assessment covers items that the DOL found in the past to be some of the most common problems encountered in restaurants, and therefore, are likely issues a DOL investigator will look for in a restaurant.

Here is a list of a few of the items covered in the assessment:

Do any workers under 18 years of age do the following:
1. Operate or clean power-driven meat slicers or other meat processing machines?

2. Operate or clean any power-driven dough mixer or other bakery machines?

3. Operate, load, or unload scrap papers baler or paper box compactors?

4. Drive a motor-vehicle on the job?

Do any workers under 16 years of age do the following:
5. Cook?

6. Bake?

7. Clean cooking equipment or handle hot oil or grease?

8. Load or unload goods from a truck or conveyor?

9. Work inside a freezer or meat cooler?

10. Operate power-driven bread slicers or bagel slicers?

11. Operate any power-driven equipment?

12. Work from ladders?

13. Work during school hours?

14. Work before 7:00 a.m. on any day?

15. Work past 7:00 p.m. between Labor Day and June 1?

16. Work past 9:00 p.m. between June 1 and Labor Day?

17. Work more than 3 hours on a school day, including Fridays?

18. Work more than 8 hours on any day?

19. Work more than 18 hours in any week when school was in session?

20. Work more than 40 hours in any week when school was not in session?

21. Do you employ any workers who are less than 14 years of age?

22. Do you fail to maintain in your records a date of birth for every employee under 19 years of age?

Click here to take the entire assessment. At the end of the assessment, there is a rules summary that explains an employer’s responsibility under the FLSA for the issues on the assessment.

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