This should have been an open-and-shut case. For the employer, that is, not the employee.

Lufkin Industries, Inc., had an employee, William Fisher, who was a 55-year-old African-American. One day, Mr. Fisher got into a verbal tiff with his 31-year-old white supervisor, and the supervisor called him "Boy." Mr. Fisher was offended and complained to the company's vice president of Human ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: Welcome to our Los Angeles-Century City Office, and to Steve Katz, who will be posting from time to time about the most peculiar of California’s employment laws.

California's wage orders, which regulate working conditions for most industries and occupations, require that "[a]ll working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the ...