Law

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California labor laws are every employee friendly. California labor laws are more beneficial to the employees than federal labor law; therefore, it supersedes the federal law most of the time. In some cases, however, both federal and California labor laws support each other with certain laws such as harassment, family medical leave, and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to name a few. In my career in human resources, I have investigated hundreds of discrimination and harassment claims, specifically sexual harassment claims. Harassment claims can be very difficult to prove particularly when dealing with “he said, she said.” All harassment claims regardless of the evidence or lack thereof, must be investigated and must be taken seriously. Harassment is unlawful; it is usually outlined in employee handbooks and integrity/ethics policies therefore thorough investigation is required. Despite employee training on harassment prevention, it seems that there are always claims of harassment and it seems that employees lose sight of professionalism at work. The worst harassment case I have investigated was when I was working for a behavioral and chemical dependency hospital.
Harassment is an unwelcome conduct based on protected status such as race, ethnicity, age and sex (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Sexual harassment is a form of harassment and it consists of two types: quid pro quo and hostile work environment (Lau & Johnson, 2012). Quid pro quo means something for something typically associated with supervisor and subordinate while hostile work environment is an unwelcome conduct in the workplace. Most companies have harassment policies and in the state of California, certain employees are mandated to go through ...

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... unfounded claim about our technician taking the 16 year old patient home.
Despite the lack of evidence in this harassment claim, the technician’s abrupt resignation may be an indication of her admission of guilt. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out whether there were any truths to the accusation. If the accusations were true, the technician would have been charged with child abuse; however, that was the last I heard of her and the situation. This harassment case will probably stay with me for a long time as it can potentially be unethical in any angle. The patient was young and was mentally unstable and our technician took advantage of the patient’s age and situation. The technician threw away her career for a sixteen year old that may not be mentally well. At one point, it made me question whether our technician should have been our patient instead.

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