Can an Employer be Liable for a Co-worker Poisoning? By Robyn McKibbin, Esq. A medical staffing company hired an employee to work as a medical assistant and then placed that employee to work at a customer’s hospital. The employee had a disagreement with a coworker, which the coworker did not think was serious enough to …

How Much Pregnancy Disability Leave is Enough? The Fair Employment & Housing Act (“FEHA”) prohibits discrimination on a variety of grounds including sex and physical disability.  “Sex” is defined to include pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions.  FEHA also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee’s known disability unless such accommodation would cause an undue …

How the Workforce is Impacted by the APA Expansion of Mental Disorders By Robyn McKibbin, Esq. The American Psychiatric Association (“APA”) recently published the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (“DSM-5”).  It includes several diagnostic categories not included in prior editions, which means more employees may qualify for protection under …

Employers Can “Pick Off” Plaintiffs to Defeat a Federal Wage & Hour Collective Action By Robyn McKibbin, Esq. Plaintiff Laura Symczyk sued her employer on behalf of herself and “other employees similarly situated” alleging the company automatically deducted 30 minutes of time per shift for meal breaks even when the employees performed compensable work in …

The Cake that Ended a Career By Robyn McKibbin, Esq. A 56-year-old nurse and 28-year employee was terminated after she gave a co-worker a birthday cake.  Unbeknownst to the nurse, the co-worker did not celebrate birthdays due to her religious practices.  Despite above–average performance reviews, the nurse was terminated for insensitivity and “unprofessional, unacceptable behavior.” The nurse …