Family Leave and Employer Retaliation

The purveyors of clickbait have learned that they can easily get clicks from people who are scrolling through their phones after a long, stressful workday and settling in for an equally stressful evening with their children by posting headlines about how much easier working parents supposedly have it in other countries, such as Scandinavia.  They post thumbnail images of Finnish dads helping babies take their first steps with headlines about both parents getting a leave of absence from work until their baby’s first birthday.  Meanwhile, federal laws in the United States require only 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of a child.  California state laws are somewhat better, and the generosity of private sector employers regarding paid family leave varies from one company to another.  If your company provided paid family leave, it is easy to count your blessings until you return to work and find that your employer is holding it against you and looking for ways to pay you less.  If your employer retaliated against you for engaging in a legally protected activity such as exercising your right to family leave, contact a Los Angeles discrimination and harassment lawyer.

Tech Company Pays Settlement to Workers Who Receives Negative Reviews and Lower Pay After Taking Family Leave

When an employer takes an adverse action, such as a demotion or termination of employment, in response to an employee engaging in a protected activity, this is employer retaliation, and it is illegal.  In many cases, protected activities are connected to protected characteristics of the employee.  For example, requesting reasonable accommodations for a disability is a protected activity, and disability is a protected characteristic.  Likewise, family status, including marital status, sexual orientation, parenthood, and pregnancy, is a protected characteristic, and taking a leave of absence of work to care for a family member, including but not limited to newborn and newly adopted children, is a protected characteristic.

One of the companies that helped make California the computer technology capital of the world paid a $14 million settlement in June 2024, to a group of plaintiffs who alleged that the company retaliated against them for taking family leave during their employment.  They claimed that they had received negative performance reviews in the years when they took family leave and in the subsequent years.  They also claimed that they had received lower pay increases than their colleagues in similar positions who had not taken family leave.  To support their claims, the plaintiffs submitted pay data and performance reviews from the years 2017 to 2023.  Like most employment discrimination and retaliation cases, this case settled and the plaintiffs received compensation without the case going to trial.

Speak With a Los Angeles Employment Discrimination Lawyer

A Los Angeles employment discrimination and retaliation lawyer can represent you in employment discrimination cases if your employer retaliated against you for exercising your legal rights related to a protected characteristic.  Contact Litigation, P.C. in Redondo Beach, California, to discuss your situation or call (424) 284-2401.

Source:

lawyersandsettlements.com/legal-news/california_labor_law/microsoft-discrimination-lawsuit-settles-14-4-million-23938.html