An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 4 - Employment Contracts And Separation Of Employees

3. S TATUTORY R IGHTS There are also numerous statutory protections which are, in essence, exceptions to the general rule that an employer has unfettered discretion to dismiss an at-will employee without cause. For example, both state and federal anti-discrimination laws generally apply to all employees, including at-will employees. These statutes prohibit discrimination or harassment of any employee, at-will or otherwise, based on certain “protected classes” such as race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, medical condition, genetic information, religion, or military and veteran status. 402 Therefore, an at-will employee cannot be terminated based on one of these reasons. Similarly, an at-will employee cannot be terminated or otherwise discriminated against because they have registered under the Domestic Partnership Act. 403 Another example includes claimed disabilities. An employer may not refuse to reasonably accommodate an employee’s physical or mental disability simply because that employee is at- will. To do so would violate the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and its federal counterpart, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Likewise, there is no at-will exception to the employer’s obligation to reasonably accommodate an employee due to pregnancy or religion. The FEHA also prohibits an adverse action against any employee, including an at-will employee, in retaliation for engaging in any protected activity, such as filing a charge of discrimination, or opposing discrimination in the workplace. Opposition to discrimination in the workplace can include participating in an investigation or assisting another employee in filing a discrimination complaint. Under the FEHA, an employer is prohibited from retaliating or discriminating against an employee for requesting an accommodation for his or her disability or religious beliefs, regardless of whether the employer grants the accommodation request. 404 In other words, the mere act of requesting a reasonable accommodation on the basis of religion or disability is a protected activity. “Whistleblower” statutes prohibit retaliation against employees for reporting discrimination, regulatory violations, illegal activity, unsafe working conditions, industrial injury or patient abuse. 405 A school should treat a report of wrongdoing by any employee seriously and investigate accordingly. In addition to the laws described above, California’s Labor Code provides additional statutory protection for employees with no exception for those who are at-will. Those protections include prohibitions against adverse employment actions on account of retaliation/discrimination for filing a workers’ compensation claim, jury duty, political activity, pregnancy, medical conditions related to pregnancy, time off to participate in a child’s school activities, time off to care for a sick child, and similar provisions. 406

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