Workers' Rights

In Saldana v. Washington Dept. of Health, attorneys from our Seattle office represented migrant farm workers in a challenge to the unlawful failure to enforce regulations regarding adequate housing for workers in Washington's cherry harvest. The court entered a judgment for the farm workers, finding that the Department of Health's actions were unlawful.

Heller attorneys filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Legal Aid Society's Employment Law Center Project, arguing that religious organizations should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion when hiring purely secular employees.

Working with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, several Heller Ehrman lawyers have represented minority members of the San Francisco Fire Department in claims against the City for race discrimination in working conditions and promotion.

Heller Ehrman worked with attorneys from the ACLU and Legal Aid Society to challenge a federal Executive Order that allowed random drug testing of federal employees. The case, Hanson v. Drewinski, sought an injunction against the application of the order to Veterans Administration employees, arguing that the order infringed upon rights protected by the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional right of privacy. The case resulted in limitations on the scope of the VA's drug testing program.