Torrance Employment Law Attorneys

California claims go to the Civil Rights Department, which accepts intake online and through its Los Angeles regional office at 320 West 4th Street, 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Federal claims under Title VII, the ADA, or the ADEA go to the EEOC's Los Angeles District Office at the Roybal Federal Building, 255 East Temple Street, 4th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012. You generally have three years from the unlawful act to file with the CRD under Gov Code § 12960 and 300 days to file with the EEOC. If you want to sue, you first request a right-to-sue notice from the CRD and then file in LA County Superior Court's Torrance Courthouse at 825 Maple Avenue.

Cal/OSHA's Process Safety Management standard at Title 8 § 5189 and federal PSM at 29 C.F.R. § 1910.119 require refineries to investigate process-safety incidents and to involve employees in hazard analyses. Labor Code § 6310 protects you from retaliation for raising those concerns to your employer or to Cal/OSHA, and Labor Code § 1102.5 protects you from retaliation for reporting a reasonable belief of a legal violation to a supervisor or government agency. Federal OSH Act § 11(c) (29 U.S.C. § 660(c)) gives you a parallel federal whistleblower remedy. Damages can include lost wages, front pay, emotional distress, and statutory civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation under § 1102.5(f).

Under California law and applicable IWC Wage Orders, time spent putting on and taking off employer-required safety gear and protective equipment, including PPE for production lines, is generally compensable hours worked. Labor Code §§ 510 and 1194 require payment of overtime when those hours push you over 8 in a day or 40 in a week. The California Supreme Court has held that even short, employer-controlled pre- and post-shift time is compensable. If your timecard system auto-clocks you in at the start of your shift on the line, you may be owed back wages, overtime premiums, wage statement penalties under § 226, and PAGA penalties under § 2698 et seq.

Maybe. Gov Code § 12940(a) and the federal ADEA prohibit discrimination based on age (40 and over). Patterns that support an age claim include selection criteria that correlate with age, comments about 'fresh thinking' or 'fit' for younger leadership, repeated nonrenewal of older workers' stretch assignments, and statistically skewed RIF results. California's CIPRA at Gov Code § 12940(j)(4) gives older workers separate protections in severance agreements. If your corporate reorg involved 50 or more workers in 30 days at a single covered establishment, California WARN under Labor Code §§ 1400-1408 may also apply and entitle you to up to 60 days of back pay if proper notice was not given.

California Labor Code § 512 requires a 30-minute uninterrupted, duty-free meal period before the end of the fifth hour of work and a second meal period for shifts over ten hours. Labor Code § 226.7 entitles you to a premium of one hour of pay at your regular rate for each workday a compliant meal or rest period is denied. Hospital meal-period waivers exist under IWC Wage Order 5 but are narrow and must be voluntary, revocable, and properly documented. If your unit's culture or staffing makes uninterrupted breaks impossible, the missed-break premiums plus penalties under Labor Code § 226 for inaccurate wage statements and PAGA penalties under § 2698 can add up substantially across a pay-period history.

Generally no on salary history. Labor Code § 432.3 prohibits employers from asking about an applicant's pay history and requires them, on request, to provide the pay scale for the position. On criminal records, California's Fair Chance Act at Gov Code § 12952 prohibits employers with five or more employees from asking about conviction history before a conditional offer, requires an individualized assessment before revoking that offer based on a conviction, and gives the applicant a chance to respond. Local LA County Fair Chance ordinances may impose additional requirements for jobs performed in unincorporated LA County.

California law gives employers significant leeway to monitor work-issued devices and accounts, but with limits. Penal Code § 632 still applies to confidential communications, and CalECPA at Penal Code § 1546 et seq. constrains government access to electronic communications. Recent Labor Code amendments (AB 2188 and § 96(k)) protect lawful off-duty conduct from being used against you. If monitoring is being used to surveil protected activity like union organizing or harassment complaints, you may have NLRA, FEHA retaliation, and Labor Code § 1102.5 claims. Best practice is to assume any work device is monitored and not to use it for personal legal matters.

Yes. The California WARN Act, Labor Code §§ 1400-1408, requires covered employers (75 or more employees in the preceding year) to give 60 days' written notice before a mass layoff (50 or more employees in a 30-day period), a plant closing, or a relocation of operations more than 100 miles. Federal WARN under 29 U.S.C. § 2101 runs alongside it for employers of 100 or more. If your employer fails to provide proper notice, you can recover back pay and benefits for each day of violation up to 60 days under § 1402. WARN violations are common when employers re-brand a layoff as a 'restructure' or stagger terminations to slip under the thresholds.