Sex Discrimination

Five Female Prosecutors from Northern California Survive a Motion to Dismiss in Their Federal Sex Discrimination Lawsuit

May 27, 2021 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

If you decide to take your discrimination case to federal court, it is important to be aware that your employer has several tools it may deploy to try to get your case thrown out. One is the “motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.” This is a very important part of the process because, if you lose this motion, you recover nothing. To make sure that you are prepared to win this and all the other motions that occur pre-trial, make sure you have an experienced Oakland workplace discrimination lawyer on your side from the very start.

A group of five female prosecutors from Contra Costa County faced, and overcame, that kind of challenge. The women sued the county and the District Attorney’s Office in federal court, laying out a case with a variety of alleged instances where sex bias affected assignments and promotions.

The women asserted that the employer engaged in “systematically demoting and failing to advance, promote and assign supervisory roles to qualified” female prosecutors while, at the same time, systemically offering promotions to more junior male prosecutors. This process resulted in three-quarters of all prosecutors having a man as a supervisor and, in some situations, less experienced male prosecutors “supervising higher ranking, advanced level female prosecutors.”

Court of Appeal: Misstating an Employer’s Proper Legal Name on a DFEH Complaint is Not Fatal to a FEHA Lawsuit

May 17, 2021 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

When you find it necessary to take on a workplace discrimination case, there are several hurdles you’ll face, and several opportunities to make very small errors. One of the big things to keep in mind is that not every small error will be fatal to your case. With the help of a skilled Oakland discrimination lawyer, you can overcome your employer’s attempts to defeat your case based solely on a hyper-technical error.

Here’s an example. A.C., a certified surgical technologist at an outpatient surgery center in San Diego, allegedly endured a considerable degree of discrimination during her time at the center, including sex discrimination, race discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. So, she hired a lawyer and took legal action.

There are several steps that you must take in this process. Before you go to court, you have to file with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. After you file with the DFEH, you have to wait to receive a right-to-sue letter. After that, you can take your case to court.

What You Can Do in California if Your Employer Has Punished You for Being a Caregiver for Family Members

July 27, 2020 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

With the challenges that have been created by the current pandemic, more and more people are wearing the dual “hats” of employee and caregiver for children or seniors. Whether you are a man or a woman, it is possible to face employment discrimination because you care for those family members, whether they’re your kids, your grandchildren, parents or other elders. While the Fair Employment and Housing Act does not currently list family responsibilities discrimination as a specific cause for suing and collecting damages, that doesn’t mean that you cannot win a case based on the workplace discrimination you suffered due to your family responsibilities. There potentially may be avenues available under the FEHA, so be sure to reach out to an experienced Oakland employment attorney about your situation.

D.R. was someone who allegedly faced this difficulty. She was an account executive for an insurance brokerage firm in San Diego, and was also a mom to two young children. According to a New York Times report, when the governor issued a statewide stay-at-home order, the executive began working from home. At home, she managed her work duties and also tended to her children (for whom she could not find childcare due to the stay-at-home order.)

Allegedly, the executive’s supervisor was not happy with D.R.’s juggling work and kids, and took several discriminatory actions, such as assigning her several tasks with “rush” deadlines (even though those tasks weren’t actually urgent) and frequently scheduling conference calls during the lunch hour, even though the supervisor knew that D.R. would be either nursing her youngest, feeding her oldest or putting the younger child down for a nap. The supervisor allegedly did this even after the executive stated that afternoon calls would be better as the younger child would be napping during that period, according to the Times report. D.R.’s supervisor reprimanded her after her children were heard on a call with a client, calling it “unprofessional,” and later told D.R. to “take care of your kid situation,” in addition to making many other sexist statements that demonstrated a clear bias against mothers, according to the mother’s lawsuit.

I Was Discriminated Against While Working as a Temp. Can I Sue the California Entity Where I Was Actually Working?

November 26, 2019 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

Chances are reasonably high that, if you are an employee in California, you know that you can take legal action if you’ve been the victim of discrimination, harassment or retaliation. However, what do you do if you’ve been harmed in one or more of those ways but you’re just a temporary worker? Does that “temp” status change what rights you have or whom you can sue? For customized answers to these and other questions based on your specific circumstance, be sure to consult an experienced Oakland employment attorney.

E.J. was a temporary worker caught in a circumstance like that. She worked at a shoe care goods manufacturer’s facility, but she did not work for the manufacturer. E.J.’s employer was a temporary staffing firm. The temp agency hired E.J., paid her, tracked her time and paid her any benefits to which she was entitled. After five years of working at the facility, E.J. was fired. Following that termination, she sued the shoe care goods manufacturer for FEHA violations, including sex/gender discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

The manufacturer’s defense was fairly straightforward. It argued that a worker can only recover FEHA damages from a person or entity who is the harmed worker’s employer, that it was not E.J.’s employer and, therefore, it couldn’t possibly be liable to E.J. for any harm she suffered as a result of any FEHA violations.

California Court of Appeal Revives a New Father’s Gender Discrimination and Parental Leave Case

October 29, 2019 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

The #metoo movement exposed many of the humiliating, hurtful, disrespectful and damaging things women often face in the workplace when it comes to discrimination and sexual harassment.

While it occurs less often, bias and discrimination that harms male workers is a real thing, too. California lawmakers have sought to maintain gender fairness in many statutes, including things like parental leave laws. Sometimes, employers or supervisors may be less enlightened. When that happens and you are the victim of discrimination, you may have options within the legal system. Contact an experienced Oakland employment law attorney to find out what’s available to you.

As an example, there’s the case of J.V., an employee of a property management company and also a first-time expectant father. J.V. put in a request for 12 weeks of parental leave, as allowed by California law. Reportedly, J.V.’s female supervisor expressed her disapproval. The employee received such biased questions as “Why can’t your wife stay home and take care of the child?” and “Will you be doing anything … or just sitting and watching T.V. all day?”

What is ‘Unconscionability’ in an Employment Contract and What Can it Mean to My California Discrimination or Wrongful Termination Lawsuit?

June 27, 2019 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

If you’ve been the victim of discrimination at work or have otherwise been wrongfully terminated from your job, you obviously face many challenges and numerous stresses in your life. One of them may be an employer who seeks to prevent you from getting your day in court by instead forcing your dispute into arbitration. Don’t let that happen without a fair legal fight, and don’t try to handle that stressful challenge on your own. Be sure you have an experienced Oakland employment attorney on your side advocating for you.

Recently, the case of a San Francisco law partner who alleged that she was the victim of sex discrimination was again in the news, as mid-June 2019 brought the filing of a flurry of amicus briefs supporting the employer in this case. To recap, the California Court of Appeal ruled in favor the employee last year, concluding that the employer was not entitled to demand that the two sides resolve their Fair Employment and Housing Act dispute through arbitration, even though the partner’s agreement with the firm called for arbitration of disputes like FEHA discrimination claims. (In this circumstance, the partner had alleged that the firm had effectively forced her out of her job due to her being a woman.)

The reason that the partner won in the appeals court was a legal concept that is known as “unconscionability.” In contract law, a contract or contract provision is unconscionable if it is so one-sided as to be unreasonable. The partner’s arbitration agreement was not enforceable because it contained unconscionable terms related to payment of arbitration costs and attorneys’ fees. It also contained an unconscionable confidentiality term that could impair the lawyer’s ability to interview witnesses.

How California Law May Let You Avoid Arbitration in Your Discrimination Case, Even If You Signed an Arbitration Agreement

December 26, 2018 | by Stephen M. Fuerch

Many times, employers will seek to resolve Fair Employment and Housing Act discrimination disputes through arbitration as opposed to litigation. They do this because they believe that the arbitration process will be cheaper than litigation and that the resolution will be more favorable than they would receive in court. For a multitude of reasons, you, as an employee, might prefer to present your case to a jury or judge, not an arbitration panel. The key, then, is avoiding being forced into arbitration, such as by a mandatory arbitration provision in your employment contract. For options on achieving these and other goals in your discrimination case, contact an experienced Oakland employment attorney.

Sometimes, there are ways to avoid arbitration even if you signed an arbitration agreement. Take the case of C.R. C.R., who would eventually become the plaintiff in the case, was someone who had amassed an impressive resume. She had a law degree from UC-Berkeley and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the same institution. Her experiences in the law and the sciences in the Bay Area allowed her to obtain a substantial position as a patent lawyer with a prestigious law firm in 2014. The attorney’s title was described as an “income partner.”

Shortly after she started work, she signed a partnership agreement. That agreement contained an arbitration provision in it that she was required to handle disputes first by submitting them to “mandatory, but non-binding, mediation.” If the dispute remained unresolved after 60 days, then either side could submit the dispute to binding arbitration.