Legal Developments
Recent California employment-law developments in Discrimination.
The Second District held that a trial court abused its discretion by capping “garden-variety” emotional distress damages and rejecting a plaintiff’s own testimony about future economic loss—reinstating a multimillion-dollar jury verdict.
The Ninth Circuit held that an employee need only give her employer enough information to understand an actual conflict between her religious beliefs and a job requirement—reviving a failure-to-accommodate suit over a revoked vaccine exemption.
The Second District held that harassment based on sexual orientation is a form of sexual harassment under FEHA—bringing the case within the EFAA and exempting it from arbitration.
The EEOC has removed and reserved its 1979 affirmative action guidelines under Title VII, eliminating the § 713(b) safe harbor for plans adopted in reliance on them going forward.
The First District held that a trial court may not dismiss properly joined plaintiffs for misjoinder based on case-management concerns—440 former Tesla workers alleging a common policy of ignoring racial harassment were entitled to proceed in five joined complaints.
The Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment for Alaska Airlines and a flight attendants’ union, holding that two terminated employees raised triable disputes over whether they were fired because of their religious beliefs—and that the Railway Labor Act did not preempt their state-law claims.
The Second District held that an employer is charged with knowledge of an undisclosed disability only when disability is the only reasonable interpretation of the known facts—affirming summary judgment for the employer on FEHA claims.
The Supreme Court held that a federal court that stayed claims under the FAA keeps jurisdiction to confirm or vacate the resulting arbitral award—even when the confirmation motion shows no independent basis for federal jurisdiction.
Senate Bill 464 requires employers to store pay-data demographic information apart from personnel records and, beginning in 2027, expands the pay data report to 23 job categories. It also makes civil penalties mandatory when the Civil Rights Department requests them.
Senate Bill 642 redefines “pay scale” as a good-faith estimate and lengthens the limitations period for California equal pay claims to three years, with recovery reaching back up to six years.