Recent Blog Posts

Pregnant Worker Receives Compensation for Job Termination

Los Angeles Discrimination Attorney — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:41:00 GMT

The plaintiff in a case, CV, a certified nursing assistance charged her former place of employment after she was restricted from working due to pregnancy. The plaintiff received a note from her doctor which stated that she was unable to perform duties that involved lifting items over 11 pounds. She was however capable of doing all other parts of her job. When the plaintiff, CV, showed the letter to her work, they asked her to get her doctor to remove the restriction. When she was not able to do that they no longer put her on the schedule to work, forcing her to seek unemployment benefits to pay for her living expenses. When CV filed for unemployment, her former employer wrote that they had offered light lifting work which was turned down. They then subsequently terminated the plaintiff on grounds that she had abandoned her job.

Another termination report drafted earlier, stated that the reason for firing was due to the employee filing for unemployment and the supervisor of the plaintiff claimed that he thought anyone that filed for unemployment while still currently employed was terminating themselves. CV filed a claim against her former employees for pregnancy discrimination. She continued looking for work sending in more than 30 job applications. The plaintiff faced great stress as a result of her firing and she and her boyfriend did not have the financial income to pay their bills and take care of their new baby. The plaintiff's former job stated that they only offer accommodations to employees who have been injured on the job, not those who are pregnant and need special treatment as a result.

The plaintiff's former supervisor stated that he did however call her to offer her lighter work but the plaintiff says as far as she knows she never heard anything about this. The doctor of the plaintiff states that he does not recount placing the restriction on CV and an expert of the defendants stated that she had never heard of an 11 pound restriction. The verdict was given on December 3, 2010. The jury determined that the plaintiff was in fact restricted by her pregnancy and has a result of being fired the damages she suffered amounted to $196,760. Two motions were filed by the defendant; both of which were denied. Discrimination is a common and atrocious attitude that occurs in the workplace. For those that face unfair judgment or treatment as a result of pregnancy, race, religion or other factor, a Los Angeles discrimination attorney can help. Contact a Los Angeles discrimination lawyer from the Employment Lawyer's Group if you have faced biased treatment at your job.

Age Discrimination and Severance Agreements

Attorney Karl Gerber — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:47:00 GMT

The Older Worker Benefit Protection Act is what the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act is referred to. It is required of employers to provide employees who are terminated as a group with the ages of the group within a 5-10 year age range in order for the employees to adequately know or suspect that age is a factor in a layoff.

These lists show the ages of other people being laid off, and are supposed to be available so workers over 40 can evaluate whether there might be age discrimination in the layoff because there is a disproportionate effect on persons over 40 before they sign a severance agreement.

Statistical analysis will have to be performed in order to determine if a layoff has a disproportionate effect on persons over 40, particularly over persons 50, or any age in the protected category over 40. In order for information to be statistically significant, the sample size has to be a lot more than thirty or fifty in order to be statistically accurate. Layoffs involving only a few people may, nonetheless, be discriminatory based upon age if the persons involved in the layoffs made concerted decisions to fire older people.

Age discrimination also comes into layoff decisions when there is an interest in getting rid of the highest paid people, the people most likely to retire soonest, the people who are no longer raising a family, have the highest costs for medical insurance, or referred to as part of an old culture, or are thought not to have as up-to-date technological skills.

Welcome to our Discrimination Blog

Attorney Karl Gerber — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:14:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Discrimination Blog.