California Labor Law Update: Recent Court Rulings Favor Employers

The state of California is known for its liberal pro-employee court system and complex labor regulations. California labor laws generally favor employees, and employers have paid billions in settlements for a variety of violations, including wage and hour violations, discrimination, and wrongful termination. However, several short, high-profile cases in California recently favored the employer, providing some relief from the constant barrage of labor lawsuits.

In one case, an employee with mental health problems made threatening comments to other employees who worked for the city of Orange County, California. She was fired and sued for disability discrimination. The Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the employer, stating that an employer may discipline an employee for engaging in threats or violence against co-workers, even when that behavior is caused by the employee’s disability.

The good news for employers is that if an employee is violent, makes threatening statements, or clearly violates company policy, they should not be afraid to take action for fear of violating disability discrimination – their obligation to maintain a work environment. sure. for other employees it takes precedence.

In the following case, a California employee was caught using a company computer for personal use, in particular to contact an attorney about private matters. The employer found the emails and then used the content against the employee in court. The case advanced through the California court system and was eventually heard by the United States Supreme Court. The Superior Court ruled in favor of the employer and explained that when an employer has a policy that email can be inspected at any time, employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their company email account.

In a third case, a police department in the municipality of Ontario, California, provided employees with pagers on which they could send text messages. Subsequently, he reviewed the messages, many of which were personal and sexually explicit, to determine why the monthly usage was so high. The Supreme Court held that, even assuming employees had a reasonable expectation of privacy in messages, reviewing those messages did not violate the Fourth Amendment. The search for the government employer was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and was not excessive in scope, and was therefore reasonable under existing precedent. As in the previous case, the US Supreme Court ruled that employers can check emails and pagers for work-related searches.

Finally, in one of the most anticipated lawsuits of the year, 1.6 million Wal-Mart employees claimed to work in a culture of gender discrimination. They filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the largest sexual harassment lawsuit in history! The California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the class action lawsuit and the case was taken to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court struck down the Ninth Circuit, stating that employees had the right to bring their own personal lawsuits, but that the class action lacked “common elements.”

While there is no doubt that California labor laws Still leaning toward the employee, employers operating in the state can breathe a slight sigh of relief in light of these recent court decisions. However, a word of caution to never let your guard down when it comes to work practices. Unfortunately, the chances are relatively high that California’s next job demand is right around the corner.