The Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center

Home Depot to Enhance Sign Language Interpreters for California Workers

Groundbreaking Settlement A Model for Providing Equal Opportunity

A major settlement has been reached between Home Depot and deaf and hard of hearing workers in California who claimed they were discriminated against on the basis of their disability. Final approval of the class action settlement was entered by United States District Court Judge Lucy Koh on February 2, 2012.

As part of the settlement, Home Depot will provide sign language interpreters at key workplace events such as interviews, trainings, performance review meetings, disciplinary meetings, safety meetings and mandatory store-wide meetings. Home Depot has also agreed to ensure that visual alarms for emergencies are in place at retail stores where class members are employed and to provide technology devices to improve communication with deaf and hard of hearing associates. Home Depot has further agreed to ensure that class members are eligible for forklift training and certification on an equal basis as their non-disabled counterparts, provided minimum safety requirements may be maintained. Read more

February 1: National Girls and Women in Sports Day

February 1, 2012, marks the 26th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day! The team staffing Fair Play for Girls in Sports, a project of Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center, joins coaches, parents, park and recreation departments, school districts, and athletic leagues across the country in celebrating the many positive benefits that girls and women gain from playing sports.

This year’s national Girls and Women in Sports Day also marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX—the law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational and school sports programs receiving federal funding. Over the past 40 years, Title IX has enabled millions of young girls to play sports on a level playing field. But there is more work to be done. Despite the fact that Title IX has been operative for four decades, girls today receive 1.3 million fewer opportunities to participate in athletics than do boys.

Similarly, girls have been granted the right under California law (AB2404) to equality in athletic opportunities in programs sponsored by their local Parks and Recreation departments. But the promise of this law too has not been realized.

Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center launched Fair Play for Girls in Sports to ensure that girls in grades K–12 have the full benefit of these two laws. If you think girls who are enrolled in your local high school or who participate in your local Parks and Recreation department sports programs are not being given an equal opportunity to play and you would like additional information about these laws, you can contact us at 877.593.0074.

To learn about the work we are doing on behalf of girls in low-income communities visit our Fair Play for Girls in Sports page. You can also visit us on Facebook, for all of the latest news on girls in sports.

Judge Denies Federal Motion to Dismiss in Defense of Marriage Act Case

On January 26, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected the federal government’s request to dismiss the constitutional claims of gay and lesbian state workers who, together with their registered domestic partners, are excluded from equal access to California’s Long-Term Care Program.

Last year the court rejected a similar motion to dismiss the claims of gay and lesbian state workers who were married in 2008 following the California Supreme Court’s ruling that the state constitution mandated marriage equality and before the enactment of Proposition 8. The January 26 order considered for the first time the claims of couples who are in registered domestic partnerships with the state of California, but who did not marry in 2008. Read more

Motion for Summary Judgment Filed in Defense of Marriage Act Case

Lawyers for Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center and Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP have filed a motion for summary judgment against the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service and the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) on behalf of gay and lesbian state workers, together with their spouses and registered domestic partners, who are denied equal access to California’s long-term care insurance program for public employees and their families. Read more

January is National Stalking Awareness Month

Every year, 3.4 million people over age 18 are stalked in the United States.

Stalking often occurs at work, and all too often jeopardizes victims’ employment. One in eight employed stalking victims has missed work because they feared for their safety or needed to seek a restraining order or testify in court.

Project SURVIVE helps ensure that victims of stalking, domestic violence or sexual assault can keep their jobs while seeking safety or medical or legal help.

For more information, call our toll-free SURVIVE helpline at (888) 864-8335. Or see our fact sheets, videos, and other resources.

NLRB Rules that Employees are Entitled to Bring Employment-related Claims as Class or Collective Actions, in Court or Arbitration Proceedings

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—the federal decision-making body that oversees relations between labor unions and private employers—recently declared that employees must be allowed to pursue their workplace grievances through collective or class-wide actions, whether it be through litigation or arbitration. Read more