This video, from CELA member Erin Pulaski, provides legal information about receiving paid time off if you need to care for a loved one experiencing symptoms of the new coronavirus.
To help workers struggling during the COVID-19 crisis, the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) is creating a series of videos explaining workplace rights and resources. We want California residents to understand their options.
Erin Pulaski has been consistently recognized for her advocacy on behalf of employees and executives. From 2015 to 2019, she was named one of the Top Women Attorneys in Northern California by San Francisco Magazine and recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” (a distinction given to no more than 2.5% of lawyers in the state). She has achieved the highest possible rating of “Superb” on Avvo.
Erin represents employees and executives in all aspects of employment litigation, including wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wage and hour, and unpaid commission claims. She represents clients in both state and federal court, in arbitration, and through trial and appeals. She also handles confidential prelitigation negotiations on behalf of clients. Read more: https://rezlaw.com/erin-pulaski/
This past week, nurses at UCLA’s Santa Monica Hospital protested publicly for not receiving adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). Similar protests have been popping up all around the country as front-line workers demand that employers take appropriate measures to keep them healthy and safe. Already, too many workers have needlessly and tragically lost their lives in the line of duty. While the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique and significant challenges for employers to provide their employees with a safe workplace, they need to be doing more.
Common sense and compassion for people providing vital
services should lead to companies doing everything they can to provide necessary
protections for the safety of their employees during this unprecedented time. If
the moral imperative is not enough, employers should know they have a legal
obligation to do so.
California Labor Code Section 6401 states: “Every employer shall furnish and use safety devices and safeguards, … which are reasonably adequate to render such employment and place of employment safe and healthful. Every employer shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, safety, and health of employees.”
Given what we know about the new coronavirus, providing masks, gloves, soap, and sanitizing products should be mandatory for employers whose employees have to come into contact with the public. Yet there are countless stories of front-line workers being denied these necessary precautions. In a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by The Washington Post, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reported there were over 3,000 coronavirus-related complaints filed from January through early April. That number does not even include all of the complaints filed with state agencies, like California’s Cal/OSHA, which is similarly inundated with employee complaints.
Besides health and safety equipment and protocols, what about
employees, many in vulnerable positions based on health considerations and the
virus threat, who request to work remotely?
Here, state law also offers some protection. If an employee has a disability that would make that employee more vulnerable to the virus and requests an accommodation to work at home, refusal to do so could violate California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA). Similarly, if an employee lives with someone who has a disability that makes them more vulnerable to the virus, the employee should request an accommodation to work at home in order to minimize the risk to the person they live with. Refusal to grant the request could violate the FEHA because an employee who is “associated with” a person with a disability also has accommodation rights.
Importantly, an employer must also reimburse an employee for any expenses incurred by the employee to obtain necessary safety equipment or to otherwise keep themselves safe (yes, that protective equipment made from store bought swim goggles and trash bags is reimbursable). Even lodging costs may be reimbursable under state law if an employee is forced to self-isolate away from home because they live with someone who has the virus or is vulnerable to the virus.
If an employee requests safety equipment, safer working conditions or safety accommodations, including working at home, and the employer retaliates by terminating the employee, suspending them, or imposing another hardship, the employee may have legal recourse. Threats, intimidation or coercion to require any employee to take unreasonable safety risks, including the threat of termination, can constitute a violation of Civil Code § 52.1, which prohibits persons from interfering, or attempting to interfere, by threat, intimidation, or coercion, with the exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States or California. California Labor Code §§ 6310 and 6311 make it unlawful to retaliate because of safety or health complaints and protect employees who refuse to perform hazardous job duties. Health and Safety Code § 1278.5 also specifically prohibits retaliation against health care whistle-blowers.
The legal consequences of those protective measures make it even more imperative that companies adhere to their obligation to provide safe workplaces. For those employers that do not take that obligation seriously or, worse, retaliate against their employees, California law provides robust protection. If workers continue to face unsafe working conditions or retaliatory conduct, they should exercise their legal rights and consult with an employment lawyer.
In this new reality, we understand businesses are facing immense pressure, but they must remember – workers’ lives are at stake. Now is the time for businesses to rise up to the challenge and do everything reasonably necessary to protect their employees.
Civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone, of V. James DeSimone Law of Marina del Rey, has dedicated his 36-year law career to providing vigorous and ethical representation to achieve justice for those whose civil and constitutional rights are violated. His team represents individuals and families in employment, police misconduct, school abuse, and personal injury cases. You can find out more about their work at www.vjamesdesimonelaw.com
This video, from CELA member Ella Hushagen, provides legal information about your health insurance options following a job loss.
To help workers struggling during the COVID-19 crisis, the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) is creating a series of videos explaining workplace rights and resources. We want California residents to understand their options.
Ella Hushagen is a member of CELA and an attorney with Teukolsky Law. She graduated cum laude from Occidental College in 2004, and pursued a career in health care access before attending law school. She graduated from UCLA School of Law in 2013 (J.D.), and simultaneously received a Masters Degree in Public Health. In law school, Ms. Hushagen specialized in public interest legal advocacy as a participant in the prestigious Epstein Public Interest Law Program. She met Ms. Teukolsky after her second year of law school while serving as a law clerk at Traber & Voorhees, one of the premier civil rights firms in California. After graduating, Ms. Hushagen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Fernando M. Olguin at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
This video, from CELA member Lauren Teukolsky, provides
legal information about expenses incurred while working from home for your
employer.
To help workers struggling during the COVID-19 crisis, the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) is creating a series of videos explaining workplace rights and resources. We want California residents to understand their options.
Lauren Teukolsky launched Teukolsky Law in 2017 after practicing law for 17 years at some of California's most prestigious civil rights law firms and organizations. A cum laude graduate of Harvard College (B.A.), Ms. Teukolsky graduated in the top 10 of her class at UCLA School of Law (J.D.), where she was an Articles Editor for the UCLA Law Review and won the law school's Read More https://www.teuklaw.com/lauren-teukolsky.html
To help workers struggling during the COVID-19 crisis, the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) is creating a series of videos explaining workplace rights and resources. We want California residents to understand their options. This video, from CELA member Nina Baumler, provides legal information about parental rights in relation to school closures during this emergency.
Originally from England, Nina Baumler is a wage and hour attorney in Los Angeles, California. In her solo practice, Ms. Baumler represents low-wage workers in some of the most vulnerable sectors of the workforce, including car-wash workers, janitors, caregivers, restaurant workers, security guards, truck drivers and other low-wage economies. Ms. Baumler regularly co-counsels with non-profit organizations in wage and hour and fraudulent transfer/successor liability cases and is an advisory board member of The Wage Justice Center.
