By Alex Li Dan Gildor, Valerian Law’s new Senior Counsel, has lived many professional lives: as an aspiring astrophysicist at MIT, a programmer at start-ups during Silicon Valley’s dot-com boom, an environmental litigator enforcing the Clean Water Act, a lawyer for the Department of Industrial Relations, and a plaintiff’s-side employment lawyer for renowned class-action law …
Affirmative Action Up for Debate at the Supreme Court As we wrote about in our previous blog post on affirmative action, two ongoing Supreme Court cases on affirmative action in college admissions are predicted to have wider impacts that go beyond the realm of education, affecting how employers are able to seek out and hire …
By Eileen Torrez, November 30th, 2022 Three important federal laws form the basis for protecting U.S. employees from discrimination in the workplace: the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We’ve written about the EPA here and the ADA here. This article focuses on …
Affirmative Action Part 1 of 2 | Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause Read More »
“I am a Human Resource generalist at a mid-sized private company. I told my department manager that we should not discourage employees from talking about pay, because that could be illegal. I learned this at a training hosted by our outside employment law firm about how HR should be handling compensation questions. My manager replied …
You Could be a Whistleblower Even If You Don’t Know It Read More »
By Helen Halldorsson, Esq. & Marcelo Lopez The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 Current Population Survey revealed that Black women working full time received 63 cents for every 1 dollar paid to White men. This resulted in annual losses of $21,001 for Black women in 2016 alone [1]. Five years later, the state of California still …
We are launching a series to address a question many people have about what it means for there to be unequal pay at work, and what laws address the problem. Our focus is on the California Equal Pay Act and the protections that employees in California have. Today we will start with the basics of …
Happy New Year! In California, a new year often brings new laws protecting employees. Let’s dive into one that applies to our clients dealing with NDAs and employment contracts: The Silenced No More Act. As of 2 years ago, California already broke new ground in protecting employees by outlawing confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements for …
2022 is almost upon us. We are almost 2 years into the COVID-19 pandemic and smack in the middle of cold and flu season. Earlier in the pandemic, federal and California laws provided emergency paid sick leave that had the effect of expanding California workers’ sick leave. Those have all expired. So what protections do …
We’re Still in the COVID-19 World: Do I Have the Right to Paid Leave If I’m Affected? Read More »
On February 23, 2021, the Ninth Circuit held in Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc. (Case No. 19-15382) that employers are not subject to heightened penalties for subsequent violations of the Labor Code until they have been “notified” of the violation. The decision goes on to explain that, in Bernstein, the employer had not been notified …
Bernstein is Not the Big Win Employers Think it is Read More »
Employers often offer severance payments to employees who are terminated or laid off. Usually, that payment depends on the employees signing lengthy severance agreements with complicated terms and conditions. You may feel time pressure to sign the agreement right away. But beware the fine print and strings attached – for example, employees are often required …
5 Reasons to Consult a Lawyer About Severance Paperwork– Before You Sign Anything! Read More »