Q: Is what my employer doing is retaliation

A: Retaliation is not unlawful unless the action that triggered the retaliation was legally protected. Most forms of retaliation in the workplace are therefore not unlawful.

There is likely nothing unlawful about your employer forcing you to get tested as a form of fitness for duty evaluation. Refusing to be tested, or even just resisting, would therefore likely not be protected conduct, and any retaliation you perceive from that decision would likely not be unlawful.

This is perhaps your third posting about this transfer on two different Q&A sites. The facts keep changing. Now you say you think you were retaliated against for not being paid for training. If that is what you can prove, you might have a meritorious retaliation case because standing up for your right to be paid properly is legally protected conduct.

Good luck to you.

A: This particular post raises questions about your being required to work off the clock and when you protested, your employer retaliated against you. Both of those are illegal. However, I am concerned about Neil's observation that you are doing multiple postings and putting different things into each one, perhaps you are just changing the facts until you get an answer that you want. If that answer is that you have a million dollar claim, you are not going to hear that under the best of circumstances.

WORKING OFF THE CLOCK- if you are already an employee and the employer requires you to take a training class, the time you spend in the class is ON THE CLOCK, and you are entitled to be paid for it. I don't care if the class is conducted in person, remotely by ZOOM, or done on an Ouija Board. If your employer requires it for their benefit, you are entitled to be paid for it at your regular rate, otherwise, THEY ARE JUST STEALING YOUR MONEY.

RETALIATION- There can be as many reasons for an employer to want to transfer you to a different location, as there are Subway sandwiches made in LA county in a week. But if the reason is because you made trouble in asking to be paid for the training, then that is an illegal reason, and the law prohibits that.

BOTH of these claims are handled by the California Labor Commissioner, and I would suggest that you go to the Labor Commissioner's office as soon as possible and file a claim.

The information provided herein is an opinion based on the information provided by the question, and no additional inquiry has been made to determine if there are other or additional facts which could significantly change the opinion. You should not rely on the opinion without first privately consulting with an attorney of your own.