Law Office of Arkady Itkin / Tel. 916-720-0100 / e-mail: arkady@arkadylaw.com
I keep seeing how employees make the same easily avoidable mistakes when submitting discrimination or harassment complaints about a co-worker or a manager. If you are about to submit such a complaint to your management, makes sure that you avoid these common mistakes in order to maximize the chances of the employer actually helping you Read More …
One of the most common types of employment claims in hospitals and other healthcare facilities is retaliation against nurses for complaining about nurse-to-patient staffing ratios by nurses, doctors or other healthcare professionals. When these strict staffing ratio requirements are violated, this means that each nurse and/or each doctor is assigned with more patients that they Read More …
The FEHA (California Fair Employment and Housing Act) imposes on employers the duty to reasonably accommodate their employees’ physical disabilities. Under the FEHA, “reasonable accommodation” means a “modification or adjustment at the workplace that enables the employee to perform the essential functions of the job held or desired. Nadaf-Rahrov v Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (2008). If Read More …
One of the common mistakes that employees make that’s rarely their fault is providing a very generic, insufficient medical note to the employer in support of their absence. This is the type of note that does not properly put the employer on notice of that employee’s disability or FMLA qualifying medical condition. As a result, Read More …
We have had a chance to represent a number of State workers in whistleblower retaliation cases – from the lower level clerks to the higher ranked managers and even one governor appointee. I was surprised to hear from them not only about the waste of public funds that they witnessed but also about the fraud, Read More …
One type of an accommodation to a workplace disability that an employee may be entitled to is a reassignment due to a disability to a different position. Below is a useful information on your rights / obligations as a disabled worker, if you are in a situation where reassignment might be a good option for Read More …
The California courts make it clear that it is illegal to deny reasonable accommodations to a disable employee because of his disciplinary record related to that disability. In Humphrey v Memorial Hosps. Ass’n (2001), a medical transcriptionist with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) was consistently late to work because of ritualistic grooming behaviors in the morning. Read More …
In a recent California case Rhea v General Atomic, the court approved an employer’s practice of requiring exempt employees to use their vacation or other personal leave hours to cover for partial day absences. In that decision, the court first acknowledged the two well established rules: (1) an employer may not deduct pay from salary Read More …
Many employees incorrectly assume when quitting their job that they will qualify for unemployment benefits because they have good cause for resigning. In many cases, however, their reason for resignation, falls far short off that standard. Under the law, “good cause” for resigning within the meaning of unemployment insurance code means substantial, compelling reason for Read More …
California public employees, including employees of state agencies, enjoy access to the expedited mechanism of resolving work related disputed and discipline imposed on them – a Skelly hearing. Skelly hearings are conducted for variety of disciplinary reasons. These reasons range from letters of reprimand and warnings to suspension or reduction in pay, administrative leave, AWOL Read More …