Top Employment Cases of 2017

By Ramit Mizrahi, Andrew Friedman, and Tony Oncidi

Ramit Mizrahi is the founder of Mizrahi Law, APC in Pasadena, where she represents employees exclusively. She focuses on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination cases. She is Chair of the California Lawyers Association Labor and Employment Law Section. She can be reached at ramit@mizrahilaw.com. Andrew H. Friedman is a partner with Helmer Friedman LLP in Culver City, where he primarily represents employees in all areas of employment law. Mr. Friedman is the author of a leading employment law practice guide—Litigating Employment Discrimination Cases (James Publishing, 2007). Anthony J. Oncidi is a partner in and the Chair of the Labor and Employment Department of Proskauer Rose LLP in Los Angeles, where he exclusively represents employers and management in all areas of employment and labor law. His email address is aoncidi@proskauer.com.

During this past year, the United States Supreme Court, the California judiciary and the Ninth Circuit continued to take increasingly divergent paths regarding employment law issues. The United States Supreme Court has taken a narrow view of employee and union rights, while the California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, and the Ninth Circuit have interpreted these rights more broadly. As a result, pre-dispute arbitration agreements and class-action waivers remain enforceable (barring action at the federal level), PAGA is still a powerful tool for employees in wage and hour matters, and many workers previously designated as independent contractors now fall under the protection of California’s wage orders. As the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have influenced more employees to step forward with harassment claims, several opinions involving hostile work environment issues reflect the evolving legal recourse available to victims.

U.S. Supreme Court Narrows Employee Rights with Respect to Arbitration, Labor Unions, and Whistleblowers