Employment Law Forum

WHAT IS EMPLOYMENT LAW?

A lay person's definition might be: employment law is a loosely categorized set of laws related to events that occur in the workplace, address disputes and impose obligations on the employer and employee.

The reason I say "loosely categorized" is because laws pertaining to wrongs committed in the workplace are not referenced or mentioned in one book [although lawyers may have a multi-volume general reference work on employment law.]

In addition to multiple sources for employment law, there may not be a single location venue to pursue or obtain a remedy for claims [albeit, through a lawsuit most claims are pursued in the courthouse]. Simply put, employment laws and dispute resolution forums ["buildings," so to speak] are so numerous that it's impossible to discuss them all in this limited space.

AN EXAMPLE BEST ILLUSTRATES THE ABOVE POINTS
[A story ripped from the headlines, as they say on Law and Order]:

Assume a female employee works in California for an employer whose main office is outside California. The employee is loyal and dedicated. At the request of her supervisor, or on her own, she works off-the-clock without being paid overtime wages.

Eventually the employee complains to her supervisor about being sexually harassed by a coworker. She also complains that she is tired from working long hours. Because the supervisor is close friends with the harasser and he is under pressure to keep his labor costs in line, the supervisor transfers the complaining employee to the night shift under the guise of needing to separate her from the male harasser. The supervisor also reduces her to part-time hours.

The supervisor discusses his decisions with the company president. The president e-mails the supervisor and approves of his quick action to the employee's complaints. He also opines that maybe some good will come out of the changes in that the employee might quit her job. He closes his e-mail by saying that if she quits that will be the end of the problem.

Taking the president's comments as an indication that he would like to see the complaining employee gone, when the employee does not quit, management falsely accuses her of stealing company property. The company requires her to submit to a polygraph exam if she wants to save her job.

Even though she passes the exam, management tells her coworkers details about the exam, including personal and intimate information management learned from the polygraph examiner. To make matters worse, coworkers and business customers hear she was accused of stealing and assume that since the employer made the accusations, such must be true.

Subject to ridicule, scorn, harassment and shame, the female employee decides this is all too much. To the joy of her supervisor and as predicted by the president she finally calls in sick, never to return to work. In other words, she quits her job.

Once resigning, the employer attempts to coerce the ex-employee into signing a "release of all claims" by holding her final paycheck hostage, meaning the ex-employee will not get her wages until she signs the release [by signing a release of all claims an employee gives up the right to sue an employer for just about anything]. About 30 days after leaving the company, she receives her pay, but only after having signed the release document. The final check does not include payment for three weeks vacation the employee earned, but did not take.

Later, when the employee files for unemployment, to gain legal advantage in anticipated litigation, the employer contests her receipt of unemployment benefits. The employer convinces the state unemployment administrator that the ex-employee quit her job voluntarily. Unemployment benefits are denied.

Law that applies :

The above factual account is a summary of an actual case. The employee's claims and "employment law" applicable to the above "fact pattern" arise from:

1) Statutes [federal and state laws];

2) Case or appellate law [that is, law established by the courts];

3) Administrative codes or regulations [discrimination, wage, and unemployment claims are each typically regulated by different administrative agencies].

Also consider the following issues:

4) Some of this employee's claims may or must be pursued in state court;

5) Some claims may or must be pursued in federal court;

6) Some claims are handled exclusively through administrative agencies;

7) Some claims may only, or must first, be pursued through certain administrative agencies;

8) Some claims may or must be pursued out-of-state;

9) Some claims may be pursued in one forum, while at the same time other claims may be prosecuted in different forums. For example, the employee may appeal the unemployment benefits denial through the EDD [a California unemployment administrative agency], separately file a civil suit in state court, and pursue a wage claim through the Labor Commissioner's office;

10) Some claims permit recovery of attorneys fees and costs if the employee wins on the particular claims; and

11) Depending on whether violation of federal or state law is alleged, such may dramatically impact the amount of proof required to win, how much money can be awarded and the amount of attorneys' fees and costs that can be recovered.

Confused? You are not alone. Many judges, lawyers and juries have difficulty with this stuff.

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