EMPLOYER DISCRIMINATION; DEFENSES – Misconduct
Single Topic for Decision 2736M
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505.03000 – Misconduct
Employer could not establish that suspected employee misconduct prompted it to investigate employees and their protected activities. There was no evidence that the employees’ protected activities, viz. issuing a “do not apply” communication to firefighters in outside departments, resulted in any disruption to the employer’s operations. Many protected concerted activities are undertaken for the purpose of disrupting the employer’s unfair practices and operations. In the absence of evidence that such activities “create a substantial and imminent threat to the health or safety of the public” (County Sanitation Dist. No. 2 v. Los Angeles County Employees Assn. (1985) 38 Cal.3d 564, 586) there is no basis to believe that a communication like the one at issue here was rendered unprotected by its alleged success. (Page 28.)