How California employers can avoid employment disputes?

What employment disputes are the most common in California?

Every employer knows that an employment dispute can cause major problems. 

Employment disputes can be time consuming and costly. Both of these take away focus from the business. Therefore, it is important for any California employer to know how to handle the most common disputes.

These are the 3 most common employment disputes and how an employer can handle them:

1. Discrimination and sexual harassment claims

An employer cannot discriminate against an employee based on ethnicity, race, disability, pregnancy, religion, sex, gender, age, sexual orientation or national origin. Employers must also avoid asking questions that may reveal this information during the hiring process. An employer will also want to avoid sexual harassment claims in there company. They can lower the chances of this occurring by having written company policies stating a no tolerance for any type of sexual harassment in the workplace. Additionally, yearly company training outline what sexual harassment is and what behavior is strictly unacceptable will also help lower the company’s chances of complaints.

2. Wrongful termination claims

The easiest way to combat wrongful termination claims is to draft a strong termination policy so that an employer can state that they were following company procedures. Using an attorney to draft a strong termination policy is critical to avoiding legal trouble later. The company procedures must, however, actually be followed in order for this to work. If an employer changes the policy verbally or in other ways, they may must have “good cause” or fair reasoning for terminating their employee. If there is evidence that there was misconduct on the part of the employee, then the employer will also have a strong argument for termination. An employer, in California, may also terminate an employee “at-will”.

3. Wage claims

Employers can reduce the amount of wage and hour claims they receive by doing two things. The first is creating a strong company policy that outlines how payment, overtime, commissions, bonuses, split shifts sick leave, and vacation days will be handled. Keeping employees informed if there are delays or issues can also alleviate matters before they escalate into disputes. The second thing employers can do is to read the California employee labor laws that employee rights. Larger businesses may refer to their HR departments for advice.

Knowing how to avoid these 3 common employment disputes can take a lot of stress off of an employer’s shoulders. It can help employers avoid complaints, or tackle the complaints swiftly so that they don’t escalate into lawsuits. Lawsuits can be costly and they take away valuable time from running the business.

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