Eye for an Eye, Won’t Fly!
ALL California employees have rights in the workplace; those rights are carefully defined in the many laws of the California Labor Code. Unfortunately many of these violations go on unchecked simply because the victim of the violation is wary of speaking up. It’s easy to make more and more allowances for bad behavior with the fear that if you report it YOU will be punished for making a fuss and ruffling feathers. Thankfully in California there are anti retaliation laws to help strengthen the resolve of those who have been wronged at work.
If you or someone you know was, fired, threatened with being fired, suspended, demoted, or discriminated and/or retaliated against in any way because you spoke up against wrongdoing by an employer or coworker you may have a case for discrimination. You may even have filed a complaint because you saw someone else mistreated, if you filed a complaint on someone’s behalf and it effected you adversely at work, this is also protected activity.
Behavior s that would be considered protected activities may include:
-The filing of or threatening to file a wage violation.
-Taking time off from work for jury duty.
-Filing a complaint regarding the safety or health hazards present in your workplace,
-or refusing to work with or around ANYTHING that might be hazardous.
Some employees choose to file a discrimination complaint with their local office of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. However while this is a legitimate course of action it is limited in the amount you can collect and they will not investigate other issues if you do not file a specific complaint. You can download, complete, and print the complaint form off the Internet here http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Forms/RetaliationAndDiscrimination/DLSEFormRCI-1.pdf.
We recommend seeking the advice of an attorney; while this may seem biased it’s truly in your best interest. If we find you have a significant case UELG will take your case for FREE, we never get paid until we collect on the clients behalf. If however we are unable to take your case we can direct you with the best way to file to maximize your chance ant collecting with the labor commission.