Trial Court Properly Dismissed
Employee s CFRA And Disability Discrimination Claims
Choochagi v. Barracuda Networks, Inc., 60 Cal. App.
5th 444 (2021)
George Choochagi worked as a technical support manager for
Barracuda Networks where he reported to Hossein Ghazizadeh.
Choochagi complained to HR that Ghazizadeh had made inappropriate
sexual comments to him about having sex with women at the office
and about Choochagi s not being man enough for his
position. Approximately 18 months after Choochagi transferred
to another supervisor, he began experiencing severe migraine
headaches and eye irritation, which required him to seek medical
treatment. When Choochagi requested additional leave time,
Barracuda allegedly moved to terminate his employment or force him
California Supreme Court Reaffirms ABC Test Is Retroactive shrm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from shrm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Highlights
The California Supreme Court in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising
International, Inc. ruled that its decision in Dynamex Operations
West, Inc. v. Superior Court 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018) (Dynamex),
applies retroactively to all cases not yet final as of the date
Dynamex issued on April 30, 2018.
This critical holding finally and definitively answers the open
question regarding the retroactive application of the ABC test for determining employee vs. independent
contractor status.
The ruling means that nearly all cases that were not final as
of the date Dynamex issued will be governed under the ABC standard instead of Borello.
The California Supreme Court in
Seyfarth Synopsis:
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court held that the worker friendly “ABC” test set forth by the Court in its 2018 landmark ruling, Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, applies retroactively. The ABC test thus applies to all pending cases governed by the California Wage Orders in determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee. Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l, Inc.
The Facts
Jan-Pro Franchising, International, Inc. is a franchisor whose franchisees offer cleaning and janitorial services. In May 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Jan-Pro summary judgment in a case brought by independent contractor franchisees claiming they should have been treated as Jan-Pro employees. The plaintiffs then appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.