In The Media

"Employers don't always have it 100% right," said Katherine Wutchiett. Katherine also notes, "Once you want to make use of those protections you need to tell your employer so that you can trigger their obligation to provide those to you."

In the article, Impact Fund highlights a recent case won by Legal Aid at Work's Elizabeth Kristen and Emma Steiner, where female athletes from James Campbell High School in Hawai'i were retaliated against by the Hawai'i Department of Education (DOE) for flagging concerns on gender discrimination. The female athletes were able to win class certification to pursue Title IX claims against both the Hawai'i Department of Education and the Oahu Interscholastic Association (“OIA”).

Katherine Wutchiett said, "Until now, workers who couldn’t afford a 40% pay cut were being forced to keep working against their doctor’s orders, to work up until the day they go into labor, to leave ill family members without adequate care, and to return to work right after having a child. SB 951 finally ends this inhumane status quo.”

Twenty years after California became the first state to offer paid family leave, Governor Newsom signed SB 951 into law to increase benefits, covering families that need to take time off work to bond with a new child or care for a sick family member.

In the article, Katherine Wutchiett said, "If people can get 90% of their income, that will take us a huge step towards making sure that if people are sick, they feel like they can take time off to recover, or if they have family members who need support, that they can be there without having to balance out what impact it will have on their ability to pay rent or buy food or take care of basic expenses."

The article highlights a letter, signed by five members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging DHS Secretary Alejandro Majorkas to establish a process to provide protections and work authorization for workers who stand up to assert their workplace rights. Marisa Díaz said, "For workers to take the risk to step forward and make that request to DHS, they need to have confidence that DHS has a policy in place and will consider granting these protections."

As many bills are awaiting Governor Newsom's veto or approval, undocumented workers and allies, including the SafetyNet4All Coalition, which we're a part of, organized a two-day statewide caravan to pressure him to sign a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to all Californians. Millions of undocumented workers are ineligible for unemployment benefits due to their immigration status, despite contributing to billions in state and local tax revenues.

The article, which features the story of LAAW’s client Mayra Perez, discusses the many challenges workers face in collecting their lost wages even after the Labor Commissioner has awarded them money.

Elizabeth said: "You could certainly come up with scenarios where male reproductive care is fully supported and fully cared for by medical systems where the full range of female reproductive care is not, and that that could be seen as sex discrimination."