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Employment Attorneys in Ontario, CA
California is one of the best states in the U.S. when it comes to protecting the rights of workers. On most measurements of workers’ rights, California law enshrines even stronger protections than those required by federal law. If an employer does not pay you fairly, fails to maintain safe working conditions, or discriminates against employees or job applicants because of a protected characteristic such as race, sex, or national origin, employees have the right to seek legal remedies, up to and including litigation. The Ontario employment lawyers at Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. represent employees in many different kinds of legal disputes against their current and former employers.
Ontario, California Employment Lawyer
Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. is a law firm with several locations throughout California. Its mission is to represent employees in employment disputes and to help them exercise the rights afforded to them under California law and federal employment laws. These are some of the types of cases we represent:
- Employment discrimination
- Wage and hour disputes, including disputes over overtime pay
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) cases
- Reasonable accommodations for employees and job candidates with disabilities
- Workplace harassment
- Employer retaliation
- Wrongful termination of employment
- Whistleblower claims
- Class action lawsuits by employees against employers
- Employment contract disputes
Some types of employment disputes have short deadlines for initiating legal action. Others involve a complex process of investigation involving one or more regulatory bodies. In either case, it is easiest to clear these legal hurdles if you start working with an employment lawyer early on in your case.
Do not be intimidated if, while researching employment lawyers, you read that lawyers at private law firms charge an hourly rate of $100 or more. This is not how we do things at Mehtani Law Offices, P.C.. Instead, we accept payment on a contingency basis, which means that you do not pay us until you receive a settlement from your former employer or until a court rules in your favor. The contingency model of payment is more common in practice areas of law where clients would not need a lawyer unless they were struggling financially.
A big corporation has the money immediately available in its bank accounts to sue another corporation that caused it to suffer financial losses, but most individuals whose main source of income is their jobs cannot afford to pay upfront for legal services. Therefore, employment lawyers and personal injury lawyers often ask clients to pay on contingency.
Employment Discrimination and Employer Retaliation Lawyer in Ontario, CA
The law prohibits discrimination against employees and job candidates on the basis of protected characteristics, such as race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, family status, citizenship status, military status, and sexual orientation. A recent court decision in California determined that caste is also a protected characteristic, and Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. represented the plaintiff who filed a caste discrimination complaint against an employer.
To prove that discrimination has occurred, you must prove that the employer took adverse action against you and that one or more of your protected characteristics were the employer’s motivation for doing so. Examples of adverse actions include refusal to hire, harassment, denial of raises, and termination of employment, among others.
Employer retaliation is not the same thing as employment discrimination, but it sometimes occurs in tandem with it, and it is equally illegal. Retaliation is when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee because the employee engaged in a legally protected activity. Examples of protected activities include filing workers’ compensation claims, taking medical leave or family leave, requesting disability accommodations, reporting misconduct in the workplace, participating in formal investigations into alleged wrongdoings in the workplace, and filing discrimination complaints.
Breach of Employment Contract
Not all employees in California have employment contracts. If you do not have an employment contract, you are an at will employee. The legal rights of employees apply to you, but because you do not have a contract indicating specific dates of employment, you are free to but your job at any time; your employer is also free to fire you for any reason other than discrimination or retaliation.
If you have an employment contract, all of its conditions are legally binding on you and on your employer. This includes dates of employment, pay and benefits, and working conditions. Non-compete clauses are more appropriate in the employment contracts of highly paid employees close to the decision-making centers of the organization than they are for most other employees. Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. can represent you if your employer does not abide by the terms of your employment contract.
Wage and Hour Disputes
California’s minimum wage laws make it so that entry-level employees get paid more than they do in most other states. No matter how high your rate of pay is, if you get paid on an hourly basis, you have a right to overtime pay for hours beyond the 40th hour that you work in a given week. This means that, if your wage is $30 per hour, and you work 42 hours in one week, your employer must pay you $30 each for the first 40 hours and $45 each for the last two. Highly compensated employees who earn a monthly salary are not entitled to overtime pay.
Contact Mehtani Law Offices, P.C.
Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. is dedicated to helping workers in California exercise their rights to fair pay and fair treatment at work. Contact Mehtani Law Offices, P.C. in Ontario, California, to schedule a consultation.