Employment Disputes & Litigation
Our law firm won one of the key employment law decisions to be published in recent times in Khoiny vs. Dignity Health, 76 Cal.App.5th 390, involving discrimination, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination/retaliation and employee status etc.,. Employment/labor law is not a field of law you should tackle alone.
It only takes one bad incident to turn a good working relationship into a nightmare. It only takes one manager or director to turn an employment relationship toxic, poison your reputation and ruin your opportunities for advancement. Never let the situation get too far away from you, especially not due to fear of "rocking the boat." Legal representation is key even when there is no lawsuit on the horizon, as is documenting and keeping evidence so proof doesn't disappear, get accidentally deleted, or questionably altered.
Labor/employment laws cover every facet of the employment relationship, including employee reviews, promotions, probations, remediations, terminations, as well as wages, benefits etc., Discrimination due to race/color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, familial status etc., and harassment are more prevalent than many employees may realize.
It may be hard to have direct evidence of such discrimination, but the law doesn't require that. Documenting disparate treatment or incidents of harassment is important, as is having legal representation during this initial process, whether or not you ultimately intend to sue. And it may seem like it is only happening to you, but the truth may be that others around you are suffering in silence, even likely within your own employer. These other employees may help build evidence of a pattern or practice.
Sometimes complaining about bad treatment or violations of law with the hope of making things better for everyone, puts you on the radar for retaliation by specific managers/directors or even entire upper management/HR, whose goal becomes to protect themselves from a possible legal action by you. One way for employers to undermine your claims might be to make you appear incompetent or troubled.
Employers may muddy the waters by soliciting and creating negative reviews meant to undermine your credibility and motives for complaining/suing. Procedures for reviews may be ignored, as the employer specifically goes out in search of bad evaluations outside of the normal review process, ignoring good evaluations in your files and on MyEvaluations, for negatives ones they personally solicited via email or orally. Even if your reviews are excellent, a new review giving you a 1 or poor performance may become all that matters to the employer. HR may prove minimally helpful, if at all, or even appear to turn on you. Termination may be the inevitable outcome of this slowly creeping demise of your job or worse yet, your career. These are patterns reported to us before that may apply to you.
Waiting too long to get legal help can not only increase stress levels, but create downstream problems that legal experience could have prevented, including with grievance procedures, probations or hearings such as before Clinical Competency Committees. Saying something while under extreme emotion may not prove wise. Having legal counsel as a sounding board earlier, rather than later, can make all the difference. Begin by asking for help.
Because the laws that apply to the labor and employment relationship are found at all levels of government—federal law under Title VII and Title IX, and California Law under FEHA, the Labor Code, and other laws — it may seem, with good reason, like a challenge to understand and protect your rights. The reality is that while your approach may be good, legal advice can only make it better.
Makovoz Law Group helps employees faced with challenging employment circumstances, including Medical Residents who are being discriminated or retaliated against with negative reviews, probations, retaliation/ACGME violations, demotions in PGY years, or even termination/non-renewal, as well as false summative evaluations, reports to the medical board, and attempts by Program Directors/Management to prevent you from getting new employment/residency positions. These adverse employment actions can then follow you, even limiting your ability to sit for Board exams to become "Board Certified" which we also have successfully resolved for our clients. Residents are employees under California law, as our own published appeals decision in Khoiny v. Dignity Health established. Protecting your rights is a calling.
Please see our article on discrimination in residency programs.
We also advise employers of all sizes in all aspects of employment counseling and litigation to prevent violations of law that can have signifiant consequences for all businesses. Properly handling employee discrimination, retaliation and other cases in- house, including investigations and solutions, before they can lead to litigation is smart for employers, not to mention the right thing to do. We have successfully helped employers conduct in house investigations and make recommendations to resolve problems both short-term and long-term, which have saved companies the costs and risks of future litigation.
The strength and depth of our practice is rooted in our ability to think outside the box, and our compassion for and dedication to all of our clients.