California Employer's Beware!!!

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 31, 2008 – Last week, California’s 2nd District Appellate Court in the case of Hammond v. County of Los Angeles, held that an employee suing her employer for race and age discrimination violations under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (the FEHA), may maintain a FEHA claim based on the employer’s actions which occurred outside the one year limitations period following the employee’s filing of an administrative complaint. This represents a significant deviation from the one year limitations period ordinarily relied on by California’s employers to protect themselves against such claims, with the one year representing the expiration of the employee’s statute of limitations to bring suit under the FEHA. The California Court’s ruling was not based on the continuing violation doctrine, but rather, upon a finding that the employer engaged in additional acts of age and race discrimination within the limitations period, each of which was considered to be a fresh violation of the FEHA, opening the employer up to a fresh statute of limitations for each alleged violation. Based on the Court’s ruling in Hammond, it is clear that employer’s must take careful steps now more than ever to avoid opening themselves up to additional claims that would otherwise have been barred by the statute of limitations, including taking prompt measures to secure the employment environment from discriminatory activities in a manner consistent with California’s current employment law, and prompt action to address such conduct if it occurs, to insure that it does not continue. For more information, contact Marc R. Jacobs, Esq., Partner at the Los Angeles Office of Michelman & Robinson, LLP. (mjacobs@mrllp.com / www.mrllp.com).