Governor Brown Signs AB 987, Making it Illegal to Retaliate Against an Employee Who Requests a Reasonable Acccomodation

On July 16, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 987 into law.  This new law makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to retaliate or otherwise discriminate against an employee for requesting an accommodation for a disability or religious belief, regardless of whether or not the request was granted.

This new law was intended to overturn a prior Court decision, Rope v. Auto-Chlor Systems of Washington, Inc., 220 Cal. App. 4th 635 (2013), which held that a request for an accommodation, by itself, did not constitute protected activity.

You can read the full text of  AB 987 here.