The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently concluded an investigation finding that over 1,100 African-American job seekers were deliberately passed up for positions by Bank of America at various times between 1993 and 2005.  Qualified African-American applicants sought to secure entry-level administrative work and teller positions at branch locations in Charlotte and North Carolina,...

Governor Jerry Brown (D) has recently signed a plethora of laws that could affect the economic lives of employees throughout the state. Signed on October 13, 2013, Assembly Bill 10 (AB 10) is one of the more significant changes working Californians will see in the next couple of years.“Minimum wage has not kept pace...

Plaintiffs' attorneys pursuing claims on behalf of their clients for the nonpayment of wages have long been compelled to abstain from basing any of their clients' claims on Labor Code § 218.5. This is because the language of the statute awards the “prevailing party” their reasonable attorneys' fees and could potentially expose an employee-plaintiff...

On Thursday, June 6, 2013, two former youth coaches for the Chivas USA soccer team filed a lawsuit alleging ethnic discrimination. But this is not your typical case of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity; the plaintiffs are white males who were fired along with eight other white employees. They claim that they were...

The trend is for plaintiffs' attorneys to file representative actions for violation of the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”), pursuant to Labor Code section 2698, et seq., rather than class actions.  However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal was presented with an issue of the first impression – whether civil penalties sought under PAGA could...