Category: Press Release

This weekend LAS-ELC provided employment legal services at the Los Angeles Stand Down for Military Veterans and their families, the largest “Stand Down” for homeless and hard-luck military veterans to ever take place in the country.

For Immediate Release           December 22, 2014 Contact: Cynthia Foster, Equal Rights Advocates, cfoster [at] equalrights.orgSara Feldman, Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, sfeldman [at] las-elc.org, 415-593-0071 Mayor Lee Signs Equal Pay Ordinance, Advancing Gender Equity in San Francisco In a significant step forward for gender equity in San Francisco, on Friday Mayor Edwin Lee signed into… Continue reading Mayor Lee Signs Equal Pay Ordinance, Advancing Gender Equity in San Francisco

The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center is representing Kimberly Erin Caselman, in a class action alleging Ms. Caselman was forced onto unpaid leave after requesting pregnancy accommodations at her job at Pier 1 Imports.   

(San Jose, CA. April 16, 2014) Today, LAS-ELC filed a class action lawsuit in Santa Clara Superior Court against Pier 1 Imports, Inc. alleging pregnancy discrimination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). Kimberly Erin Caselman, the named plaintiff in this case, alleges she was denied reasonable accommodations for her pregnancy and was… Continue reading LAS-ELC Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Pier 1 Imports for Pregnancy Discrimination

LAS-ELC is deeply honored to have received the first awardee-directed donation associated with the “Chairman Robert M. Dell Award for Extraordinary Pro Bono Service” from Latham & Watkins LLP, which will enable us to provide free legal services to even greater numbers of low-income workers facing urgent workplace problems.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the Supreme Court of California’s August 2014 opinion in Salas v. Sierra Chemical Co., which reaffirmed that, with few exceptions, undocumented workers enjoy the same state law protections and remedies against workplace abuses as all other employees in the California workplace. 

We welcome our new Shartsis Fellow, Lan Diep, who will be supervising the Vietnamese American Workers’ Rights Project in the South Bay.  He will provide community outreach and public education on rights in the workplace and will engage in limited representation on behalf of low income Vietnamese American workers in and around San Jose.

The California correctional system is at a crossroads.  Decades of draconian policies have led to unprecedented rates of incarceration, particularly of persons of color and persons with significant disabilities.  Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding that overcrowded prisons violated the federal constitution, the Legislature and the Governor of California have decided to make structural… Continue reading LAS-ELC Urges Alameda County to Focus on Needs of Inmates With Disabilities

LAS-ELC applauds the Department of Labor for acting to help workers care for family members in need.  In a new Administrator’s Interpretation issued January 14th, DOL clarified that parents may take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to tend to an adult child with a disability who is incapable of self-care, regardless… Continue reading DOL Interpretation of FMLA Allows More Workers to Care for Adult Children