Gainey Law, PLLC Seattle Employment Law Attorney

Hi, Welcome to my blog.  I have been thinking alot lately about the younger generations of workers entering the work force. These workers are way ahead of the law in their expectations about the employee employer relationship. They don't just want work life balance they expect it. They don't just want respect as a human being in the workplace, they demand it. On the other hand, I recently spoke with an HR professional for a large area employer. Her take was "we pay you to put stuff in boxes, and if that causes you anxiety or if its too hot in the wharehouse (when no one else in complaining) that's a "you" problem." You can see that the gap and resulting tension is clear.  Washington State has begun enacting laws that protect all employees and I think that is definetely the right direction to be going. Today I recevied this email from the Seattle Office of Labor Standards outlining the work being done around one such law - The Secure Scheduling law enacte...

          I just had the pleasure of meeting with the Workplace Bullying Project's founder Lauri Lilli. What a breathe of fresh air for this lawyer. I am so weary of having to tell people I can not help them if they are still employed - because the employer has not taken that final "adverse employment action" or because though they are being horrifically bullied it is not illegal discrimination under the law.  There are no employment police you can call to show up at your workplace and make your boss, manager, supervisory or co-worker stop targeting, undermining, or backstabbing you. The law provides you the right to fight for damages only after unlawful (discriminatory) workplace actions have risen to a certain level of severity or pervasivenes. The case law defines a hostile work environment as harassment that changes the conditions of your job. It must be either severe or pervasive. In almost all cases it must also by based on some discriminatory an...

 The story of this pod cast: Battle Tactics for Your Sexist Workplace is a lesson in how far we (in this case “progressive” public radio still have to go to achieve anything close to equity in  the workplace 

October 2023 Book Review: Update on Dodd's Deposition Guide  Read the Review Here June 2022 Book Review: Damages Evolving : A collaboration by David Ball, Artemis Malekpour, Courtney Rowley, and Nicholas Rowley. WSAJ Trial News. Read The Review Here.   January 2021: Article: Corporate Accountability in the Age of COVID : Pandemic-weary jurors provide justice for plaintiffs while holding corporations accountable - WSAJ Trial News. Read the Article Here.  Corporate Accountability in the Age of COVID: Pandemic-weary jurors provide justice for plaintiffs while holding corporations accountable Publication Date:  January 2021 Volume:  56-5 Author:  Nicole Gainey Categories:  In the News, Asbestos, Product Liability, Verdicts & Settlements, Wrongful Death, COVID-19 It’s 1962. In Moses Lake, Washington, a ten-year-old boy named Ray Budd splashes water into a bucket of Kaiser-Gypsum joint compound (aka drywall "mud"). Dust fills the air as he mixes the comp...

  Jury Awards $1 Million to Woman Who Was Told, ‘I Don’t Serve Black People’ Rose Wakefield was ignored by an attendant at a gas station in Beaverton, Ore., near Portland, as white customers who pulled in after her were served first, according to the lawsuit. By  McKenna Oxenden Jan. 28, 2023 A woman in Oregon was awarded $1 million in damages this week after a jury found that she was discriminated against when a gas station attendant told her he didn’t “serve Black people.” The decision by the jury in Multnomah County, which came after a four-day civil trial, included $550,000 in punitive damages. Greg Kafoury, a lawyer for Rose Wakefield, the plaintiff, said his client felt “vindicated” and was looking forward to putting this case behind her. “This company deserved to be publicly humiliated just as they had publicly humiliated my client by calling her a liar in court for four days when she had been telling the truth,” Mr. Kafoury said in an interview on Saturday.