Should You Hire An Employment Lawyer In Los Angeles?

It’s normal to struggle with work, employers, and coworkers. However, you can’t always avoid shady bosses and bad coworkers. It’s one thing to butt heads during stressful weeks; it’s another to be harassed, taken advantage of, retaliated against, or fired for illegal reasons.

Sometimes, some violations are obvious. For example, if your boss and coworkers openly harass you, then most people will know they have some type of employment claim. However, sometimes people simply don’t know their rights; if you don’t know your rights are being violated, your boss, coworkers, and supervisors might get away with doing them.

That said, let’s talk about employment claims, how you might have grounds for them, and when you need to contact the Best Employment Lawyers in Los Angeles.

When Do You Have An Employment Claim?

California has one of the broadest labor law protections for employees. However, the most common claims are as follows:

1. Discrimination

In California, employees cannot be discriminated against for protected attributes, such as age, race, color, genetic information, disability, gender, sex, and other specific attributes.

This means you cannot be fired, rejected, suspended, and mistreated on the grounds of your protected characteristic. For example, an employer cannot reject an applicant solely on the grounds of their sex. Likewise, employers cannot cut female employees’ pay while sparing their male coworkers.

2. Retaliation

Your boss cannot try to get back at you for simply exercising your rights. That said, some shady employers still cut salaries, demote, or intentionally create a toxic work environment for target employees.

If you report your boss to the EEOC or OSHA, it is illegal for them to try to get back at you for doing so. Likewise, your boss cannot fire you for reporting discrimination, harassment, or other illegal actions.

3. Wrongful Termination

Wrongful termination is defined as firing employees for illegal reasons. Illegal reasons for firing an employee include:

• As an act of discrimination against an employee’s protected rights

• As retaliation for exercising their rights, such as taking a leave to vote, taking care of family, or serving in the jury.

• As a way to silence whistleblowers

That said, this doesn’t mean employers can’t fire you for any reason at all. If you’re an at-will employee, they can even fire you for no reason at all.

In short, the reason for the termination should be illegal for it to be considered an act of wrongful termination. If you’re unsure whether you have a claim, consider contacting a prescreened California Employment Attorney.

4. Unpaid Wages

Unpaid wages are more than just the salary your boss refused to give you. There might be other salary and wage opportunities like break and meal times, overtime, and paid leaves that shady employers might be holding back.

For example, you should be paid for the work done past a workday if you’ve done overtime work. However, if your boss forgets about it or fails to pay you for it, it is considered wage theft.

That said, you can resolve some unpaid wage issues internally. After all, there might just be a misunderstanding. For example, your boss might have just forgotten a payday or missed your overtime logs. However, if you’ve gone over your records and employment contract and they still refuse to compensate you, then it might be time to call a prescreened California Employment Law Attorney to help you with the process.

Bottom-line

Employment law has a lot of confusing factors that shady employers and managers use to avoid holding up employee rights. That’s why you must learn about it, read your contract, and consult an attorney the moment you suspect your rights have been violated.