In an effort to give consumers more control over the data businesses collect from and about them, the California legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2018 (and amended it a few months later). The CCPA gives consumers the right to know about and have deleted the data businesses have gathered about them, among … Continue Reading
ZL Technologies, Inc. v. Does 1-7, 13 Cal. App. 5th 603 (2017) ZL Technologies brought suit, alleging libel per se and online impersonation, against seven anonymous individuals who represented themselves as current or former ZL employees and who posted critical reviews of ZL’s management and work environment on Glassdoor (a website where workers can post … Continue Reading
A federal court has granted IMDb’s request for a preliminary injunction to allow the entertainment website to keep actors’ ages in their online profiles – despite the enactment of a statute in California prohibiting same. The lawsuit, IMDb.com, Inc. v. Becerra (Case No. 16-cv-06535-VC) was filed in response to the passage of A.B. 1687, which required … Continue Reading
This bill prohibits a commercial online entertainment employment service provider that enters into a contractual agreement to provide specified employment services to an individual paid subscriber from publishing information about the subscriber’s age in an online profile of the subscriber and would require the provider, within five days, to remove from public view in an … Continue Reading
On September 24, 2016, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed A.B. 1687 – a measure aimed at preventing age discrimination against film, television, and other professionals in the entertainment industry whose ages could be viewed by casting directors and other potential employers. As a result of this bill, industry professionals whose profiles are listed on commercial … Continue Reading
Jon Davler, Inc. v. Arch Ins. Co., 229 Cal. App. 4th 1025 (2014) After one of the owners of Jon Davler, Inc. (Christina Yang) found a used sanitary napkin in the women’s bathroom and blood around the toilet seat, she started yelling at the employees that they were “dirty” and demanded to know which of … Continue Reading
Negro v. Superior Court, 2014 WL 5341926 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014) Navalimpianti USA, Inc. subpoenaed Google, Inc. to produce copies of email messages it had relating to one of Navalimpianti’s former employees, Matteo Negro. Prior to initiating this action against Google in state court in California, Navalimpianti sued Negro and other former employees in state … Continue Reading
Kao v. The University of San Francisco, 229 Cal. App. 4th 437 (2014) Dr. John S. Kao was a tenured professor at USF who submitted a 485-page complaint (plus a 41-page addendum) to the university alleging race-based discrimination and harassment at the school. Kao was not satisfied with the university’s two-page response, which he said … Continue Reading
$150,000 Sexual Harassment Verdict And $680,000 Fee Award Affirmed Taylor v. Nabors Drilling USA, LP, 222 Cal. App. 4th 1228 (2014) Max Taylor worked as a floorhand on an oil rig where he alleged he was harassed by his supervisors who called him “queer,” “fagot [sic],” “homo,” and “gay porn star” and was subjected to … Continue Reading
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a new law protecting employee use of social media by prohibiting an employer from requiring or requesting an employee or applicant for employment to disclose a username or password for the purpose of accessing the employee’s personal social media. Additionally, an employer may not require an employee or applicant … Continue Reading
In re Roman Catholic Archbishop of Portland, 657 F.3d 1008 (2011) Documents that were produced in discovery and filed in the bankruptcy court contained allegations that Fathers “M” and “D” (two priests who were not parties to the Portland Archdiocese’s bankruptcy case) had sexually abused children. The bankruptcy court held that the discovery documents could … Continue Reading
Holmes v. Petrovich Dev. Co., 191 Cal. App. 4th 1047 (2011) Gina Holmes sued her employer for harassment based on pregnancy, retaliation, constructive discharge, violation of the right to privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The trial court granted summary adjudication to the defendants with respect to the claims for harassment, retaliation and constructive … Continue Reading
NASA v. Nelson, 562 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 746 (2011) Twenty-eight contract employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (“JPL”), which is owned by NASA but operated by Cal Tech, had never been subjected to a government background investigation. In 2004, a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission prompted the President to order new, uniform identification … Continue Reading
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two important employment law decisions in January, embarking upon a year that includes a host of notable cases that onlookers anticipate could bring about significant changes and clarifications in labor and employment law.… Continue Reading
County of Los Angeles v. Los Angeles County Employee Relations Comm’n, 190 Cal. App. 4th 178 (2010) During the course of collective bargaining, the Service Employees International Union asked the county for the personal contact information (names, home addresses and home telephone numbers) of county employees who are in the bargaining unit but who are … Continue Reading
City of Ontario v. Quon, 130 S. Ct. 2619 (2010) The City of Ontario’s Computer Usage, Internet and E-mail Policy provides that use of the city’s computers and other electronic equipment, networks, etc., is limited to city-related business, that access is not confidential and “users should have no expectation of privacy or confidentiality when using … Continue Reading
Today, in a decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case involving an employee’s assertion that a government employer had violated the Fourth Amendment by unreasonably obtaining and reviewing personal text messages sent and received on … Continue Reading
People v. Tabb, 170 Cal. App. 4th 1142 (2009) Edward Nathaniel Tabb, Sr. was convicted by a jury for grand theft of his employer’s property. Tabb worked as a “runner or helper for pipe fitters” at BAE Systems. Over a period of approximately two months, Tabb brought new or used ship parts to A to … Continue Reading
Alch v. Superior Court, 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412 (2008) In this ongoing putative class action filed by television writers alleging “industry-wide” age discrimination, the writers served subpoenas on the Writers Guild of America (“WGA”) and other third parties, seeking demographic information, including dates of birth, employment data such as writers’ employers, job titles, credits … Continue Reading
Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co., 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008) Arch Wireless contracted to provide wireless text-messaging services for the City of Ontario, including its police department. Pursuant to the city’s general Computer Usage, Internet and E-mail Policy, the use of the city’s computers and other electronic equipment, networks, etc., was limited to city-related … Continue Reading
United States v. Ziegler, 456 F.3d 1138 (9th Cir. 2006) After the owner of Frontline Processing contacted the FBI with a tip that an employee, Brian Ziegler, had accessed child pornography on the Internet from a workplace computer, Frontline entered Ziegler’s locked office and made a copy of the computer’s hard drive, which was provided … Continue Reading
Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., 39 Cal. 4th 95 (2006) In this proceeding, several California clients of SSB filed a putative class action seeking damages and injunctive relief against SSB’s Atlanta-based branch’s practice of recording telephone conversations with California residents without their knowledge or consent. The lower court affirmed dismissal of the lawsuit after … Continue Reading
Tien v. Superior Court, 139 Cal. App. 4th 528 (2006) In this wage and hour class action litigation against Tenet Healthcare Corporation, plaintiffs sought from Tenet the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all of the putative members of the class, which Tenet estimated to be approximately 50,000 people. The parties subsequently agreed that a … Continue Reading
Readylink Healthcare v. Lynch, 440 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2006) Readylink Healthcare and its founder, sole shareholder and officer, Barry Treash, sued David Lynch and his law firm for invasion of privacy (public disclosure of private facts) based upon, among other things, Lynch’s posting on his website that Treash was a “convicted felon.” (Lynch had … Continue Reading
