California Employment Lawyer Blog

A race and age-discrimination lawsuit in Los Angeles can proceed against the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers after a judge refused to throw out the suit brought against the team by its former general manager, Elgin Baylor, according to the Beverly Hills Courier.

With increasing frequency, our San Bernardino employment lawyers are being called to deal with cases involving age discrimination in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. Amid the economic downturn, employers often decide to layoff their veteran employees, who are frequently among a firm’s highest paid. In certain cases, age discrimination may result. For Baby Boomers — particularly those who have decided that working a few more years is the best way to fund a secure retirement — the consequences can be dire. Consulting an experienced attorney is your best bet when it comes to fighting for your rights in the workplace and protecting the financial well-being of you and your family. Too often, veteran employees who are downsized as a result of age discrimination will be unable to find a comparable position at comparable pay.

In this case, Clipper officials say Baylor resigned in October 2008 after 22 years as GM. However, his lawsuit claims he was unceremoniously dumped from the team based on race and age discrimination. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the team’s request to throw the case out of court. The employment lawsuit also alleges that Baylor was underpaid, never earning more than $350,00 a year, which is not comparable to the GM salaries for other NBA teams.

Baylor was named NBA Executive of the year in 2005-06 when the team reached the semifinals for the first time since the 1975-76 season. The NBA is also named in the lawsuit, as it alleges the league condoned the discrimination by virtue of knowing the general manager salaries of other teams in the league.

The Los Angeles Times reports the wrongful termination lawsuit is scheduled for trial on March 2.
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Gender discrimination in Los Angeles may be part of the reason women doctors make less than men, according to a recent report in the L.A. Times.

Our employment lawyers in Riverside and Orange counties are often called to represent clients who have been fired or suffered harm in the workplace as a result of discrimination based on age, gender, race or other factors. While we have made great strides as a nation when it comes to gender equality, women continue to be paid less than men for the same job.

In other cases, women may be passed over for a promotion. As we reported late last year on our California Employment Lawyer Blog, women hold fewer than 1 in 10 of the top executive positions at California’s 400 largest companies.

An article in the journal Health Affairs recently reported women doctors are paid an average of $16,819 less than men at the beginning of their careers. But the premise of the article may itself have been biased as it attributed the pay difference to women choosing jobs with more flexible hours and other family-friendly attributes.

The article contends the same inequality in pay exists between male and female anchor teams at every television news station.

In 1999, new women physicians made $151,000, versus $173,000 for men, a difference of 12.5 percent. In 2008, women made $174,000 compared to $209,000 for men, a difference of 17 percent.
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As employee’s rights attorneys we are often asked, “should all employment discrimination Plaintiffs take their case to trial?” My answer is always the same, only if you think your chances are very good. Reading a recent article in the latest edition of California Lawyer, I believe in my own advice more now than ever. According to the magazine, a study by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, of all the employment discrimination cases that go trial and average 2% result in a verdict more favorable to the Plaintiffs. This means that 98% of cases that go to trial end up with the employee not winning. (This study was mainly based on federal cases between 1988-2003.)

The same study also found that the median award to plaintiffs was $110,000 and the median settlement $30,000. Our Orange county sex discrimination attorney knows that the decision to go to trial or to settle is one of most important decisions a Plaintiff will make. Our attorney’s experience as a former general counsel to a public company means that he also knows what issues are considered by companies before they decide to make an offer to a former employee. Before deciding on whether to go to trial, our Orange County race discrimination attorney will research recent verdicts in the district where the case will be tried. This bit of information should always be considered when one is deciding on whether to take a case to trial or not.

If you or a loved one is the subject of racial discrimination at work, or you feel that you or a loved one is experiencing sex discrimination or sexual harassment, contact our Santa Ana discrimination attorneys for a free consultation. You can also contact our sister firm Criminal Defense Team for any questions for Orange county DUI attorney or related to criminal cases in San Bernardino.

A former Cal Poly dean has filed an employment lawsuit in Southern California, alleging religious and racial discrimination, defamation and wrongful termination, according to Cal Coast News.

Consulting an Orange County employment attorney or Riverside employment lawyer is critical to protecting your rights when unfair labor issues occur in a university setting. Frequently, an employee has invested years or decades earning the protection of tenure. When promotional or advancement issues arise under such a system, discrimination issues can result in an employee being unfairly passed over for a promotion or other recognition.

In this case the former dean of the College of Engineering filed the employment lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Dec. 7. The suit involves his unsuccessful effort in 2008 to assist a Saudi Arabia university in establishing an engineering program. The complaint lists as defendants Cal Poly’s Provost and Vice Principal of Academic Affairs as well as an engineering professor and a blogger.

He is seeking an order forcing the university to reinstate him to his previous position, as well as unspecified monetary damages. He was hired as dean in 2005 and demoted in June of this year. The lawsuit alleges the defendants were responsible for a series of racist and defamatory attacks during negotiations with the University of Saudi Arabia.

The CalCoastNews reported in 2008 that the project with the Saudi Arabia university was itself discriminatory, indicating it would not welcome women, Jews or gays.

Other media reporting on the issue included the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s California Report. A media report indicated that the dean was let go “after years of controversy, high staff turnover and faculty discontent.”

He was also forced to step down as the head of the department of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at North Carolina State University, amid similar reports of dissatisfaction, according to media accounts. He held that position from 1999 to 2004.

The blogger is accused, among other things, of circulating a picture of Osama Bin Laden wearing a Cal Poly jersey. He contends it was in reference to Cal Poly’s proposed relationship with the Saudi Arabian university.
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Women hold fewer than 1 in 10 of the top executive positions at California’s 400 largest companies, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Our Orange County employment discrimination attorneys have seen improvements in the wage and income gap between male and female executives. And we are seeing more women rise to hold top executive positions. But each time one of these surveys is conducted it is a reminder that sexual discrimination in the workplace is still an ongoing issue nationwide.

When women are passed over for promotions at work based on their gender, they can and should consult an experienced employment attorney in Los Angeles. Over the course of a career, promotion delays and smaller wages can have a drastic impact on your financial status, quality of life and peace of mind. And, cumulatively, such tactics in the workplace can even threaten your security in retirement.

The latest study by UC Davis found that women accounted for 12 percent of directors and 12.3 percent of the highest-paid executives at the 79 Los Angeles firms on the list.

Statewide, just 16 of the 400 companies had a female chief executive, although that is up from 15 in 2009 and 11 in 2006. The study did find, however, that the percentage of women on the boards of most company coincides with the percentage of women in top management positions, which at least suggests that discrimination is less likely to occur once an executive has reached the top.

“What this suggests is that once you make it into top management, the chances of getting appointed to the board are roughly the same whether you’re a man or a woman,” said Donald Palmer, a UC Davis profession involved in the study. “If discrimination is taking place, and I think it is, it’s likely taking place at the many lower levels in an organization.”

The survey found that one-third of California’s 400 largest public companies had no women among directors or top executives. Silicon Valley tech companies had the worst record of selecting women for these positions.
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