hr blog
ca supreme court rules unauthorized workers can sue their employer for alleged employment law violations
According to an article drafted by AALRR (Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo), "On June 26, 2014, the California Supreme Court held that all employees, regardless of immigration status, are entitled to all of the protections, rights and remedies provided under California employment laws and held that California law is not pre-empted by federal immigration law prohibiting employment of unauthorized workers. Salas v. Sierra Chemical."
AALRR further added that, "Employers are not able to use an employee's or former employee's status as an unauthorized worker to entirely defeat that employee's claims under California law, since rights and protections afforded authorized employees will be extended to unauthorized employees. However, assuming that the employer had no prior knowledge or reason to know of the employee's illegal status, the post termination discovery of the former employee's unauthorized status does effectively cut off damages from that point forward, since the employee would presumably have been terminated at that time. Employers should also be reminded of the passage of the so-called, 2013 Unfair Immigration-Related Practices package of laws (SB 666, AB 263, AB 524; effective January 1, 2014), which, among other provisions, allows for the suspension or revocation of a business license for threatening or retaliating against an employee based on citizenship or immigration status."