EMPLOYER DISCRIMINATION; DISCRIMINATION – Burden of Proof; Evidence

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Board rejects the employer’s argument that the ALJ was required to hold employee to a higher standard of proof in establishing a prima facie discrimination or retaliation case because employee (a medical doctor) was an at-will employee. See Los Angeles Unified School District (2016) PERB Decision No. 2479 (Los Angeles), where Board held that the elements of a prima facie case under Novato remain the same “regardless of the employee’s at-will or similar status or the procedural protections to which the employee may or may not be entitled to in a different forum,” and that “once the employee establishes a prima facie case, the employer’s Novato defensive legal burden attaches, regardless of the status of the employee.” (Id. at p. 14.) (p. 12.)