Sacramento Employment Lawyer | Arkady Itkin
Effective Representation In Employment and Wrongful Termination Cases for Workers and Businesses
First Amendment cases in the context of employment and wrongful termination cases are highly technical. In order to make a claim against a government employer for violation of the First Amendment, an employee must show (1) that he engaged in a protected speech; (2) that the employer took “adverse employment action”; and (3) that speech Read More …
It’s not uncommon for employer to change the story about why they terminated an employee. We have seen over and over how the employer would tell the employee that he is being laid off because the employer’s business needs have changed, and later – they challenge that employee’s unemployment benefits application, arguing for the first Read More …
Although there are some benefits to complaining about discrimination, harassment, retaliation, safety violations, etc., anonymously, whether internally or by contacting an outside governmental agency, consider the significant disadvantage of complaining without using your name: even if the employer later finds out somehow that you were the one who complaint, they can take action against you, Read More …
California Education Code Sections 44113(a) and 44114(c) are part of the Reporting by School Employees of Improper Governmental Activities Act. It prohibits “an employee” from using his or her official position to retaliate against “any person” to deter that person from making a disclosure protected by the Act. A “person” includes any individual. An employee Read More …
It’s important that you are aware that legally there are two types of complaints an employee can make to HR or to higher management – (1) complaints that are considered “protected activities” and (2) other kinds of complaints that are not considered protected activities. A complaint is a protected activity – i.e. it provides the Read More …
Any employee who suffers discrimination or retaliation as a result of filing a workers compensation claim in California should remember that he generally may have an option of bringing two different claims : (1) the 132(a) claim for unlawful retaliation at the Workers Compensation Appeals Board and (2) wrongful termination/disability discrimination case under ADA/FEHA in Read More …
As the Supreme Court recently pointed out, one “good” way to discourage an employee from bringing discrimination or harassment charges would be to insist that he spend more time performing the more arduous duties and less time performing those tasks that are easier or more agreeable to that employee. This is presumably why the EEOC Read More …
One of the more important cases discussing retaliation protection for employees and specifically what it means to oppose harassment is the US Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Metropolitan Gov’t of Nashville (2009). In that case, a 30-year employee was interviewed as part of the investigation into sexual harassment allegations against one of the directors Read More …
In a recent wrongful termination case we handled, we made an argument that a bad performance review after complaining to management about discrimination is evidence of retaliation. We did not hope that this relatively insignificant action by the employer (as compared to demotion, suspension, termination, etc) would be found to be actual evidence of retaliation Read More …
The video below explains what “protected activity” means within the context for California anti-retaliation laws: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TorqIYSyHGw?rel=0]