This is a very funny but also important article highlighting the confusing rules of private employment. If you ever have legal questions hiring for a family, please call Bob King the cited attorney in the article. He is the best resource for all things legal in household staffing for California.
“There are some things in there that would be problematic if they are covered by civil rights laws,” said attorney Chaya Mandelbaum, a partner with Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe who represents employees. […] California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and job applicants based on a long list of protected categories, applies to employers with five or more employees.
The ad was posted by an unidentified couple who describe themselves as fortysomething biotech workers who don't have time to cook, do laundry or dishes, put away groceries, keep cut flowers alive, schedule appointments, return merchandise, wait on hold for customer service, teach the dog tricks, hem pants, haul stuff to Goodwill, hang pictures, reorganize the closet, polish fingernails or research investment opportunities. Bonus points are given if the person has “long hair” and knows how to gently untangle knots, “can make one-of-a-kind wood furniture pieces,” can “swim well in the ocean” and is “physically strong.”
The California labor code prohibits employers of any size from taking adverse employment action against employees for lawful nonwork activities, said Bob King, founder of Legally Nanny, a household-employment law firm in Irvine. Because smoking and drinking alcohol is lawful, prohibiting those activities outside of work would violate the code, he said. Under the state labor code, employers cannot consider or ask job applicants about certain offenses, including…
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