Oxnard

Oxnard is a Ventura County city on California’s Central Coast, and the most populous city in the county with over 200,000 residents. The city lies on the western side of the Oxnard Plain, near a great deal of agricultural activity, as well as oil fields. While the agricultural land has been important to the region, there have been plans to develop a large portion of it; the plan in 2020 was for a business park that would create new jobs. The city also serves as a significant transportation hub. Large employers include the city, the local high school district, Reiter, CommonSpirit Health, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Raypak, and Proctor and Gamble. If you are facing a dispute with your employer over discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblowing, or wage and hour violations, call the seasoned Oxnard employment law attorneys of Calderone Law Firm. Vincent Calderone, the principal of the firm, has many years of experience that he can bring to bear toward winning your case.

Employment discrimination occurs when an employee is treated differently based on a protected characteristic. Federal, state, and local laws delineate what characteristics of people are protected. The state law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) typically provides the greatest protection, though each case is different, making it imperative to seek a seasoned attorney’s counsel and representation in discrimination cases. FEHA protects race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, sex, childbirth and related medical conditions, age over 40, religion, disability, medical conditions, genetic information, veteran or military status, and domestic violence and stalking victim status.

It is stressful for most people to blow the whistle on their employers. If you are thinking of reporting your employer’s illegal conduct or misconduct to authorities, you may rightly fear retaliation. However, it’s important to know that it is illegal for an employer to retaliate against you for whistleblowing. Some employers do violate that law, but so long as you reasonably believed your employer’s actions constituted misconduct or a legal violation when you made a report or refused to carry out an action, you are protected; this is the case even if an official body, such as a court, eventually determines that the employer’s conduct was not actually illegal or a form of misconduct. Retaliation takes many forms but could include firing you, reporting your immigration status to ICE, demoting you, firing you, failing to promote you, writing you up, or refusing you the resources required to fulfill your job duties.

Wage and hour laws govern the minimum wage, meal and rest breaks, and overtime that are supposed to apply to nonexempt employees, which includes certain classes of workers, typically those that have less control over the work they do. Nonexempt employees can include servers, bartenders, administrative assistants, and similar types of jobs. Independent contractors and exempt employees do not receive wage and hour protections. This means that many employers are eager to classify nonexempt workers as independent contractors and exempt employees. Misclassification can result in wage theft; when a worker is misclassified, the employer may not pay minimum wage and overtime and may not provide an employee with proper meal and rest breaks. It’s important to seek legal counsel if you believe you may have been misclassified. Sometimes wage and hour claims are too small to be pursued in a lawsuit. However, if your employer has committed wage violations against a number of employees, it may be appropriate to bring a class action lawsuit. These are challenging lawsuits that demand representation by an attorney who has experience handling them. The knowledgeable lawyers of Calderone Law Firm can help.

Our trustworthy employment law attorneys may be able to represent you whether the litigation involves whistleblower retaliation, labor law violations, discrimination, or harassment. We work hard to obtain the best possible legal outcomes for our clients. For a free initial consultation, complete our online form or call us at (424) 348-8290.