Most people who work for an employer in Los Angeles assume that the employer is following the applicable laws for hiring, firing, promotion and for providing the workplace standards that are required.
Unfortunately, many employers do not follow the law or are unaware of a specific employment law or laws they may be violating. When these violations negatively impact an employee, it is important to get a specialized attorney involved as quickly as possible.
Specific Issues
In Los Angeles, and throughout California, there are both state wide, as well as federal laws that govern employment. To help employees to understand a few common issues in employment law, here are some common areas where employers either don’t know the law or willfully ignore the law.
- Breaks – under California law, employers are required to provide a 30 minute, unpaid meal break if the employee works at least 5 hours and is not required to complete work during the break. Additionally, the meal break has to occur before the end of those 5 hours and similarly if there are an additional 5 hours of work required for a single shift. Breaks (rest breaks) have to be provided as 10 minutes for every 4 hours or a major fraction of that time.
- Discrimination – employment law is very clear that no employee can be discriminated against due to race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religion or other similar factors. Discrimination can be shown if an employer treats one employee or a group of employees differently based on these factors.
- Hostile work environment – when other employees or management uses behaviors or speech in a pervasive or significant way to cause a person or a group of people to feel targeted and abused. For legal purposes, a hostile work environment itself is not always grounds for a legal case, but if it rises to the level of discrimination it can.
Other factors such as not providing sick time, overtime pay or incorrectly categorizing workers to limit the benefits paid are also common issues under employment law. Visit website for more info about employment law attorney in Los Angeles.
