Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Re: Medical work restrictions with regards to overtime

An employer is obligated to accommodate reasonable medical restrictions. I would love to see them try to say it is unreasonable to reduce your hours from 80 to 40. You need an attorney to 'educate' them on the law and they need to get this handled properly, before they face a lawsuit. You probably don't have to accept lower pay or lesser position. Contact me if interested.

Re: Medical work restrictions with regards to overtime

Your question would be more appropriate in a Worker's Compensation forum as that process controls work restriction and working rights in California. Call the Riverside County Bar Association

(http://riversidecountybar.com/)

4129 Main Street

Riverside CA

(951) 682-7520

Ask for a referral ASAP to a worker's comp attorney.

Re: Medical work restrictions with regards to overtime

You really need to have an attorney negotiating for you. Beginning with the answer to your questions re: benefits. If you quit, you may not obtain 100% of your retirement (depending on your retirement plan.) You should not quit, before talking to an attorney. Employees who quit must demonstrate that they were constructively discharged, meaning, forced to quit. You would have to prove that the working conditions were "intolerable." The facts that you describe may, indeed, convince a court that you were faced with "intolerable" working conditions. Nevertheless, quitting should be your last option. California protects employees from discrimination based on disability (California Government Code Sec. 12940) and requires employers to provide "reasonable accommodation" to employees (a) with cancer, and (b) with conditions that limit their physical abilities. Providing a 40 hour work week is a reasonable accommodation. The company is also legally obligated to "engage in a good faith interactive discussion" with you regarding your restrictions to attempt to return you to work. That discussion requires them to first look at the job you are in and see if it can be restructured to allow you to perform it (without further injuring yourself.) The company is then required to look at other open positions and transfer you into one of them if possible.

It sounds like you have many potential claims against this company -- (1) a worker's compensation claim for the stress; (2) a claim for disability discrimination and harassment, (3) a possible age discrimination claim.

You might also have a claim going back four years for overtime pay. I am assuming you are salaried. But just because you are salaried (or management) does not automatically mean you are not entitled to overtime pay. California overtime law looks to the work performed, not to the employee's title, to determine whether overtime is owed. If more than half of your day is spent performing "non-management" work (as CA law defines the word), you are entitled to overtime pay.

To go back to your initial question of "will I lose my benefits?" If the employer persists in refusing to accommodate, and you are forced to quit, you can turn around and sue -- and hopefully recoup much of the losses -- in salary and benefits. Before you do that, you should have an attorney attempting to negotiate with the company to provide "reasonable accommodation." If you wish to correspond more on this, pls. reply to the email below, or call me at 415-522-5200. Good luck.