 And so I think my name is Aladr Fiki. I'm one of the attorneys here at Kerasan, Francisco Bay Area's office. We take a whole host of questions regarding, especially during COVID-19, regarding unemployment insurance. Employment discrimination has been something that we've been known to speak out for the rights of American Muslims. In today's webinar, we'll touch upon both of those areas. If there are any questions, I'm happy to take them towards the end. So Insha'Allah, please stay tuned. Hopefully it won't take too long in about 20 to 25 minutes, insha'Allah. So again, what are some of the topics we're gonna talk about? Like I said, what do you do if your job has been impacted by COVID-19? Obviously, it's still a continuing crisis. The pandemic is at its worst ever point now in California with almost 3,000 deaths nationwide. What do you do if your job is impacted, was impacted in the past? What were your options? It's good to know for the future. God forbid, if you're laid off, you've got your work hours cut, and if the pandemic continues to have the economic impact it's having. We will touch briefly about some of the leave laws, and most importantly, we'll talk about general religious accommodations and dealing with discrimination because of your religious identity, your national origin, and we'll talk about that. So let's get into it. What do you need to know if your job was lost, your hours were cut, you took a significant cut, or you were furloughed? What happens in those situations? Ordinarily, when people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, they can apply for unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance is a program that essentially provides temporary and partial wage replacement for people who are looking for jobs in between jobs. They usually, payments every week, they're sometimes paid out biweekly, but they're payments every week for individuals to help them with their living expenses and other such things. Now, there are some basic requirements for receiving unemployment insurance. Number one, number one thing, people ask me, I wanna leave my job, it's toxic work environment, I don't like the work that I'm doing, can I then apply for unemployment insurance? And unfortunately, while I might not support labor laws and laws being that way, currently as it exists, you may not apply for unemployment insurance in that situation. You have to have lost your job or been underemployed, let's say your hours are cut through no fault of your own. Now, this is even before COVID. Let's say your boss is to say, I'm sorry, we don't really have space for you. We're changing projects. We don't believe this department is useful and the face cuts, that's through no fault of your own. Now, what happens if you're let go because of poor performance, other issues, disciplinary issues, then unfortunately, you may not apply for unemployment insurance. Now, during COVID, what it means is if your place of business, your workplace closed because there was no work, the pandemic affected it, and specifically because of COVID-19, your hours were cut, that's a situation in which there was no fault of yours and that's when you can apply. That's the first requirement. The other requirement is that you need to have sufficient prior earnings and it's a very legalistic term. What does that mean? Generally, what EDD, the Employment Development Department, the Unemployment Insurance Agency in California does is it goes back 18 months so, and it breaks it down into quarters. And every quarter essentially looks if you've had one quarter in which you've earned at least $1,300. And if you have earned at least $1,300, you're good to go. If you haven't, there's another formula, which is about $925 a week or so, and you need to have earned at least minimum. Why do I say that's the case? Depending on how much you've earned per quarter is how much you get back in unemployment insurance. Think of it this way. Unemployment insurance, as you know, is something that comes out of your paycheck. It is something in which, you know, you are paying into for a rainy day, such as being laid off that you can then take money. So depending on how much you earn per quarter is how much you'll actually get back as well. The third and final thing, which is a bit tricky, particularly early on during the pandemic and might continue into the next year was you need to show that you're ready, willing and able to work. What do those three things mean? They're not just as simple as some random terms. Being ready means that you are actively looking for a job. That's something that you are, you know, currently in the process. In the past, you'd have to show you've gone to interviews or job fairs, obviously because of COVID it's been harder. In the early parts, EDD weighed that requirement, but now they're still going back as they've determined that there's some sort of recovery happening in the economy where you can actually go and apply for jobs. Even if it's online, you don't obviously have to go to a job fair in person or expose yourself to that risk. But that's something that you have to show that you're ready. Willing means that you're receiving jobs and you're not turning them down simply because you're like, oh, no, I want something different. You don't have to accept jobs necessarily that are not with a new scope. Let's say you're an engineer or a lawyer and you're getting jobs, let's say, to work at a printing factory and that's something that's outside your scope. You can make the argument that that's not really replacing your wages in your interest areas, but you can't simply turn down jobs. And unfortunately, if there's a situation in which those are the only jobs that are available, you would have to take those jobs as well. And the other thing about being able to work is a couple of things. You need to have work authorization. Obviously, if you're a citizen or a green car holder, good to go, but if you're a visa holder, you need to be having the type of visa that allows you to work in the United States. You know that green car holder sometimes and also spouses of green car holders will get an EAD, an employment authorization document. That is fine in that situation where you are allowed to work there. The other thing is you cannot have some sort of a disability or an impediment preventing you from doing work. Let's say you were injured and hurt and are unable to do so, then you are not considered to be able to work. In that case, you wouldn't be eligible for UI. You'd be eligible for some state disability benefits. Worker's comp, if you were injured on the job, that's a separate area. And for that, you should really be reaching out to your care or others who work on labor law and providing public benefits. But if you're not able to work because of an injury, whether it was on the job, off the job and you're applying for state disability benefits, you may not be eligible for UI. Now sometimes if your state disability benefits are not enough and you can earn some UI, they combine the two. Again, a bit more complicated, but just so you know, these are things that you should be focused on. What's another thing? Another common question people ask is how much can I really get from UI? I touched upon that briefly. The minimum is about $40 to about $450 a week. Plus, I write this an additional $600 per week under the CARES Act. We had the CARES Act up until the end of July. It expired unfortunately, Congress and Senate did not extend it and we're not able to extend it. But what would happen is let's say if you earn $50 per week, you would get the additional 600. So it would be 650 per week. You'd get payments in about two weeks. It would be about 1300 for two weeks. Now there are talks for some of you who've been paying attention in Congress and Senate to allow for $300 a week under unemployment insurance benefits for people under the CARES Act or another form of an act that would allow people to get those benefits. Obviously, you know, people are still struggling. The additional $600 would be ideal. There is an opportunity for people to speak to their Congress members and elected officials to see whether they could push for them to actually get those benefits and have those hires. Now, how long can you get that? The quick answer is you can get your benefits as long as you don't run out of them. You know, Edd will often tell you you've got about 15,000 in benefits and you can use them however long, but the max you usually ordinarily could get is was 26 weeks. Under the new federal laws, what is done especially till the end of this month under this year, so only until the end of this year was you could get 26 weeks plus 13 and Gavin Newsom also introduced laws that add another seven weeks. So that would be up to 46 weeks is how long you can get them. But those 26 plus 13 weeks have to be due before December. So people who've been getting unemployment insurance benefits from let's say the summer or early on in the pandemic are probably starting to see that expire at the end this year. And that's something that's important to keep in mind. Now, what are some things that you should be aware of when you apply for UI? You apply, like I said, you can apply online at ui.edd.ca.gov. You can apply by phone or by mail, I think the best and the easiest option even while the system is clogged is to do so online. One thing to look for is always answer honestly. So that's like all previous employment when you were laid off, what your wages were, all that is important, whether you're currently working because if you provide knowingly or knowingly false statements, there's a penalty, it doesn't mean you have to pay. There's usually penalty weeks, which means that if you received any benefits, you may have to return them with interest sometimes and also let's say you're eligible for UI benefits but you may not get them for the weeks they were serving the penalty. So it might be like three to four weeks you don't get them and obviously a month's worth of UI benefits and not having them can be difficult for people especially in this environment. The other thing to note is once you are approved for UI payments, you have to keep certifying every two weeks that you're still looking for a job, you're already willing and able to work, you haven't found another job, that's something you have to show and sign and certify. Obviously, do not lie on that as well. If you find another job, you should be letting them know so the payments stop in that front but that's something that it's important to know again. If they later find out that you've been receiving payment from a new employer or any other sort of, any of that nature, you will, like I said, be penalized for it and have an interest payment on it. Now, what are the things should you be focused on when applying for UI? All letters from the EDD. So the EDD will often send you a letter once you've applied if you've been approved with a Bank of America card that through which you can then receive your benefits and withdraw money, but all letters from the EDD, whether it's to certify, whether it's to provide a clarification. EDD will also often send a letter to your employer. You don't have to respond to that but just so you know, they'll ask your employer, is it true that this person worked on this from this time to that time, they were laid off? The reason for the layoff that they listed in the application is actually the reason those are all things that they will focus on as well as important for you to listen to and learn. Now, if you're denied benefits, that's another important thing to focus on. You can appeal by sending the notice back and you have about 10 days to respond. Please get the help of an attorney such as ours and others in responding back to this. And sometimes it's just a matter of saying, hey, my wages weren't all put in there. I made a mistake. There were some wages that I had and we'll talk about that a bit later. That's something to do and like I said, please do reach out to attorneys to prove for that consultation. Now, another thing to do is people ask me, can I apply for UI if I was an independent contractor? You've got a 1040 form or others during that time or you have your own business? Generally, the answer is no. Under California law, generally though, something to note is all workers are considered employees unless proven otherwise. Obviously 1040 and those sorts of forms vacillate against, sorry, 1099 and other forms vacillate against that. Sometimes what happens is that employees are misclassified. We know this is an issue through some of the stuff that's been happening around Uber and Lyft drivers. For example, they've been classified in the past few years as independent contractors. There was a California law, AB5 that said no, they are actually employees. We saw a proposition that just got passed, I would say quite detrimentally and unfortunately for gig workers that said that there should be an exemption specifically for people who drive rideshares and they're not employees. But there's a test, if you are not sure if you're an independent contractor or an employee, there's a test that you should know. And the test is called the ABC test. It's a California Supreme Court case. Essentially, number one, you are an employee of the employer and an independent contractor only if the boss, the company that you're working for does not control the work you perform. Let's think of it as if an accounting company was to hire you to do a paint job and you owned a painting company, right? So in that situation, the boss would not tell you ordinarily, the company wouldn't say, oh, you need to paint XYZ, you can do it this way. This is the type of brush you need to apply. That's something in which there's no one controlling you. Number two, you do not perform the core work that the company does. Let's say that in this situation, they asked you to provide help with electrical. They asked you to provide some consulting on accounting. Let's say it's a tech company. That's not the tech company's main work, right? If you're being hired as an accountant to do some work, it can be seen that you're a contractor, the boss does not control the work you do. So they are not telling you how to do it. They're just asking you to complete a job or a project. Number two is you're not performing the core work of the company. Let's say if you're an accounting who was taken on contract for an accounting company, there's an argument to be made that you're actually an employee because they're controlling how you're performing the work that you're doing as well as the core work. Now, the third and final thing is you don't have an independent business doing the work you're performing. Let's say you had your own accounting company or you had an old company that worked on repairs and you were contracted or you were asked to come in for a company, there's a chance that then you're an independent business contractor or an independent contractor. So to use this example earlier, if you're hired by let's say an accounting company to perform some maintenance on their walls or a painting job, you have an independent company, you might be likely deemed to be an independent contractor. If you don't have those, then you're not. Like I said, we generally advise Uber and Lyft drivers to say that they're employees because of the various laws, because of the fact that their work is being controlled, that they can't just do whatever work they're doing. They're told when to take those rides and how to take those rides and they're actually performing the core work of the company, which is ride sharing and they don't have an independent business. People like to think of themselves as entrepreneurs, but necessarily ride sharing isn't one of those spaces. Now, if you're ever in doubt, apply for UI. The worst, they will reject your applications, obviously don't lie and we can always provide advice. Now, let's say you are an independent contractor or a self-employee. What can you do? Are you out of luck in the situation? No, you can apply for something that's come about because of the pandemic and because of the CARES Act, which is Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA. What is PUA? We'll talk about that in a bit. Now, another question, like I said earlier is, people say all my wages weren't reported. This often happens for misclassified workers, such as ride share, people who are paid by cash or by check partly, you may have your wages. You can ask EDD to investigate whether additional wages can be added. So you can document from your 1099s or deposit records or an app in which you're being paid to say like, let's say Venmo or Zell or whatever, that you're getting cash from this company for doing the work that you are and it should be added to your wages. The benefit of adding to your wages is that you will also get more unemployment insurance benefits. I always ask people to collect those records, pay stubs, screenshots of those apps, et cetera, to prove to EDD and you can reach out to them directly. You can try them on the phone. They're often very busy, but mostly through online to say I need to add my wages in that situation. And the way to do that online on the website is you go to the portal, you select claim questions and then you click on to the missing wages from claims on a dropdown menu and then you add and explain why they don't have it. And you'll say, well, my employer's paid me partly in cash, partly in check and that's why they don't have it. And then an auditor from EDD will check in to investigate and confirm how to do that. Let's go back to Pua. Like I mentioned, Pua stands for Pandemic and Employment Assistance. This is for workers who are out of work because of COVID-19 but we're not eligible for UI. What does that mean? If you're eligible for UI because you're an employee, because you paid into it, you have enough wages, you should apply for UI, not Pua. You will not likely get Pua just because you're like, well, I'm gonna choose between one or the other. Anyways, UI is better for you in terms of benefits. But for people who are independent contractors, self-employed and don't have the option to apply for UI, they can apply for Pua. Essentially, it is there for people who are out of work because of COVID-19 and it's also for people who use all their unemployment insurance benefits. Let's say you ran out of the $8,000 that you were due and you wanted to apply for Pua. Pua is something that can help you if you run out of it. Again, another thing to remember, it's till the end of this year unless the benefits run out on that sense. Now, the other thing is you also have to continue to be work-authorized. So if you're undocumented, unfortunately, or out of a visa status, you may not be able to apply for either UI or Pua. And again, what under Pua classifies as a COVID-19 related reason, it's things like the place of employment is closed because of COVID-19, you had to take time off to provide care for a child or a household member who can't go to school or work because of COVID-19 issues. So you had to take care of them and they were dependent on you, including children. You were yourself diagnosed with COVID-19 or had those symptoms and are seeking a diagnosis. You're caring for someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19. You're a doctor, medical provider, the city, that county, some government at first was actually to self quarantine for let's say a couple of weeks or a month and or you had to quit because of COVID-19. That's a COVID-19 related reason and that should make you eligible for Pua. Just something you know. Now, how much can you receive? And the minimum benefit, unfortunately is usually half of the state's benefits. It can be up to about $167 or $190 a week. If you think about it, they're also calculated very similar to Pua, which is like, let's say, you previously got unemployment insurance and now you ran out of your benefits, they look at the calculation and determine how much you got. For self-employed contractors as well, independent contractors, they'll ask them how much you're receiving in this quarter, how much you were getting paid or how much you earned to determine how much you should be getting back. And those are things that are eligible for you as well. And the same thing, it's 26 weeks plus the extension of 13 and then the California extension of seven, so about 46 as well. The benefits unfortunately will run out at the end of this year. As you know, there's a lame duck session in Congress. There are talks trying to extend these Pua benefits. I know that people desperately need them and we're hopeful in Charlotte that they'll pass so people can then continue to make use of it. It's still important to get a sense of how to apply for it and how much people can apply for it in case they're extended. Same way to apply for Pua as UI is to the website edd.gov. Same, they'll ask you to apply for UI. They start accepting applications starting on April 28th over special in the process. Now, another question that we often sometimes come across is what if I'm still being required to work but I don't think it's safe? Now, as you know, for example, in Santa Clara County and counties in the Bay Area, they're moving back and shelter in place order. So there's more reason for people to say, I can no longer show up to work and I need to apply for Pua. You as a worker have a right to refuse unsafe work. You know, this is the OSHA or the Occupational Safety Hazards Act in which if there's a dangerous workplace, you can whistle, blow and report on that workplace, but you also have a right to be free from an unsafe workplace. You can refuse that work, but it's not just refuse a work and don't show up to work. It's that I'm sorry, I can't work and then you have to work towards an acceptable solution. For example, you can demand proper safety equipment, PPE like masks, gloves, proper sanitation. You can also request that, you know, there may be, there should be accurate and adequate distances between you and your coworkers, between you and employees, other employees, customers, clients, whatever your workplace is. You have a right as usual to organize and ask for better safe conditions, right? Some people have asked for like Paxi Glass, some people have said only, let's say five people are allowed in the establishment at the same time. Those are all things that are fair to ask before you quit. That's one requirement that you have that I think is really important because unfortunately it's a high bar, you know, these are things that you should really be looking at. Remember, for UI, you can't quit. You need to have it even laid off, but the exception here is unless there was a really dangerous condition and you need to show that you tried to address and resolve the problem with your employer first, they refused or they didn't provide enough situations. I think as attorneys we tell people to, you know, ask your employer to improve those conditions and you feel forced to, and if you feel forced to quit, usually your employer know you're quitting. I want to be, this to be in writing, I'm quitting because I believe that the conditions are not safe and that precautions are not taking. Why? Because when you do apply for PUA or UI at that situation, then if they ask the employer and the employer says, while the person just quit, you can make the argument that, you know, you quit because you were forced to since the conditions were not safe. Obviously, if you have a health condition or an underlying medical condition that puts you at higher risk, that's sort of like a disability accommodation. So in that situation, they should continue to provide you either an opportunity to work away from home or work hours that put you less at risk. You can apply for, you can always ask for an accommodation for your disability or they can even change your work assignment. Let's say you work in a place that puts you in the front lines interacting with people, you can ask them to shift away from it in that situation as well. And it also applies for people over 16, which is considered a more vulnerable segment of our society as well. So that's something that's important to realize as well. Now, what happens if you or a household member gets sick? You can, very briefly, I'll talk about this, apply for paid sick leave and or protected leave if you're still employed. If you get sick, a household member gets sick, use your paid sick leave, especially under California law, unfortunately the state law allows for paid sick leave to be as less as three days. There are some localities like San Francisco that have been providing emergency funds to employers to provide up to like 40 additional hours and under new federal laws, especially starting in April of this year. If your employer has fewer than 500 employees, you have the right to two weeks of additional paid sick days from your employer, especially if you are dealing with COVID-19 or someone in your family is. So another thing is that if your employer has 50 or more employees, you can also get up to 12 weeks of leave and job protection, but that's unpaid, unfortunately. Like I said, with state disability insurance, if you are unable to work because you've got an injury that prevents you, let's say a back injury, you would have to get a doctor's certification to get those benefits as opposed to UI. If you got sick with COVID-19 or others during work, you can get workers comp on that situation. And obviously there's also paid family leave, which is if a family member who could sort of close, like spouses, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts, as long as they're close to take care of them, then you can get certification there in that sense. Now, quickly to recap, if you are undocumented out of visa status in this country, you are unfortunately not eligible for UI or PUA, remember? One of the requirements is that you need to be authorized to work in this country to receive any of those benefits, but you are still eligible for paid sick leave, state disability insurance, meaning if you got injured outside the job, also workers comp and then paid family leave as well. There was a brief fund for undocumented workers and their families that govern in use and passives about $500 one-time payment. Unfortunately, the first version of the CARES Act, which gave people $1,200 per family, up to $1,200 per family, excluded families that had undocumented workers. So that's something we want to be mindful of as well. And I'll briefly pause to see there any questions that have popped up on Facebook as well currently. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment there. I'm monitoring that as well before we go into questions around whether or not people have any questions. So I see that there aren't. I'll move on really quickly and talk about religious discrimination as another topic. So CARES does a lot of work representing people who are affected by religious discrimination. Now, one thing to know is the laws that are applicable are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and national origin. These are important areas of focus. This is a situation in which if your employer is discriminating, then that's something that you can use to sue them. The requirement is your employer has more than 15 employees. In California, you have something called FIHA, the Fair Employment and Housing Act. It's also similar to Title VII, but it covers more classes. It also covers like English learner status, sexual orientation, gender. And then also it only requires your employer to have five or more employees. Now, what are these civil rights laws require from your employer? They require that they provide you with a reasonable religious accommodation. Remember, you can also get an accommodation for a disability. We're not gonna focus on that today, the same sorts of elements apply, which is that a reasonable accommodation is one which eliminates your conflict, your need to perform your religious duties and obligations and in the employer's requirement, without creating the keyword as an undue burden on the employer. The employer is not unfortunately required to provide you exactly what you're asking for. Let's say you're saying, I need a prayer room for myself and other employees. That's not something they're required, but they are a reasonable accommodation community that allow you to pray outside. They could designate some space or say that you could pray in your workspace as well. Those are all things that are okay and should be good to go. The other thing is, it also depends on the nature of your work and the workplace, whether or not they can provide an accommodation. If it's like the type where you cannot be provided one that unfortunately them and not be deemed reasonable. And we'll talk about those things. So how does this usually work when you're applying for these things? So you have to have a sincere religious belief that conflicts the job to you. Let's say if your job requires you to be clean-shaven and for some reason whatsoever, most jobs should not. And it's your religious belief that you need to wear or sport a beard, then you should be able to get that accommodation unless the employer can show that causes an undue burden. You have to let the employer becomes aware of the conflict, means you have to let the employer know that there's a conflict between what you need and require and your religious obligation. And the employer needs to have engaged in an interactive process at this time to accommodate the religious beliefs or observances if possible. So they need to make whatever they can. Let's say prayer times, they say, okay, you can take a break at this time, your lunch break could be moved at this time under Ramadan. Let's say they shift your workload to ensure that you're not lifting as heavy objects. They could assign it to another coworker or allow you to come in earlier or later just to use Ramadan as an example. They can, unless it significantly causes an undue burden. An undue burden is like it costs them a lot of money, a lot of modifications. There's no way for them to accommodate, but they're allowed to ask you for more information as to what and how you would like assistance in this situation. So that's something that I think is useful for everyone to know in this case. Now, what is described as religious accommodation? It's very broad. It could be religious dress, how you wanna appear, hijab, a beard, whatever else, coofy, and grooming practices, like I said. That's all covered as well as other religious practices, just prayer, fasting, taking a day off for Eid, for example. And those are all things that are covered. Under federal and California law, there are different standards for what is undue hardship. In federal, it has to be more than minimal, but California needs to be significant difficult to your expense. Like I said, it's costing a lot of money for your employer to provide you with those accommodations or it's expensive for them to shift your job duties around. And it really is case by case and depends on the facts. I listed some examples of religious accommodations in that sense, which is, like I said, asking for prayer times, a bit of a space for you to pray, to take a break so you can coincide with it to wear a hijab or a coofy or a niqab, let's say, for example, to move your work times to accommodate with Ramadan. And also to be able to take a day off before your religious holidays. And requesting one, like I said, there's no magic words. It's what you need to do essentially is let the employer know of your sincerely held religious belief as a practicing person of faith, for example, ask them for that accommodation. But before you do that, it's really important to review the employer hand with the process for doing it. Some of them might designate a supervisor and HR manager and it's important to get to them early as soon as possible so they can know of it. Make it clear always that this is because of your sincerely held religious belief. If you're doing it orally, follow it up with a written email, letter, whatever that is. So you can document it. Always, always, always document these things. And then engage them in dialogue. There's always some give and take and some compromise that can be satisfactory for all parties in this world. And the situation may not always be ideal and perfect, but you can move things in a way that allows you to get the religious accommodation that you need. And in all cases, we're here to tell you that we're here to support and help and push and negotiate with employers on your behalf if that's needed. So, you know, again, just a quick overview before I went in there. There are federal laws, like I said, Title VII Americans with disability. This is for people asking for religious for accommodation based on disabilities, age discrimination, and then their state laws as well. Now, what if you're dealing with harassment at work? You know, harassment is defined under a law as unwelcome conduct that's directed at you, the individual, because of your protected characteristics. What's protected characteristics? Race, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, English learner status, even immigration status in California. If there's conduct, even if it's jokes that are sent towards you, that is unwelcome conduct as long as it makes you feel unsafe. It does not allow you to do that work. That's something that is considered harassment. That's separate from, you know, it can also take the form of like, obviously sexual harassment as well that is directed towards you because of your gender, sexuality, or you know, making unwanted and unwelcome advances as well. That's a bit separate from what is considered hostile work environment in which the conduct that's happening, whether it's your coworkers, supervisors, clients that it's become severe and pervasive, that is now abusive. And it affects your ability to perform your job. These could be like one-time incidents, obviously, but a major incident, for example, that something Islamophobic, homophobic, anything of that nature is said and you no longer feel welcome and are able to do your job functions. That's an example of a situation in which your ability to perform the job is impacted. Obviously, the more it happens, the stronger the case that there is actual harassment. And some example is inappropriate jokes, like I said, any derogatory comments or slurs, physical harassment, obviously, and verbal threats as well. All of these based on the situation that you're at show that there's a hostile work environment. Now, using this, you can also prove, for example, your religion or these conduct, this type of conduct is preventing you from being promoted or hired or being fired. If this is, you know, there are comments that are made or actions that are made or you are now, you know, removed from job duties and that you think is motivating your firing, that's something that's important or lack of promotion. That's something that's important to know might be religious discrimination. So what do we, you know, just to wrap up, advise people, always, always document incidents, dates, times and witnesses. If there's an incident that happens of harassment, hostile work environment, or, you know, you've asked for a promotion multiple times or even a few times and the reasoning given does not jive up, but always report and date who was there, what time it happened. And if you can get a witness, that's obviously helpful. Always review handbook or policy for grievance procedures. Some workplaces have a hotline, a whistleblower hotline to provide those complaints. Some have HR or need you to speak to a supervisor or manager and always complain, always document to your complaint unless obviously that individual is supervisor, boss, manager, coworker is the person convicted of harassment in that situation, follow up with a higher authority than that person and always, always follow it up with a complaint and keep copies of correspondence in the future if you come to care or any other attorneys, they can say, hey, this individual reported this, you had a duty to investigate and stop this and put this into action and you did not. That's why it's important. And we always tell people if you're let go, or if they're saying, you know, by signing this document, you are saying that we've done what we can and you release this of all claims in the future in court and otherwise do not do that without seeing legal advice. Oftentimes, if you're asked, you feel coerced to sign those documents, they may not hold up in a court of law, but they obviously make things more difficult when a lawyer is representing you and is trying to get, let's say, a fair settlement or resolution of the situation. Finally, if the situation is pervasive, like I said, it's very hostile for you in the work environment, there's unwelcome conduct and there's a pattern you're noticing happening with others and yourself. We always recommend people file with government agencies, care can, our attorneys can, including my self income and look at your situation and help you file with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or the federal agency to help solve the situation. Again, that's something which will only come about if we are able to learn of this. So always reach out to us. I'll pause here really quickly to see if there's any questions that have come up on Facebook and if people have any questions to that effect. Just give me a brief moment to check in, but like I said, I think generally it'll be important to reach out to care if you need assistance with unemployment insurance benefits, if there's a situation in which you are unable to look at get assistance and you're a victim of this harassment that I mentioned. I don't see any more questions there. So what I'll do is I'll leave the contact information there. These are some organizations along with Care California that help on workers rights, advancing anti-discrimination, advancing Justice Asian Law Caucus or based in San Francisco, Care California with our chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area in Los Angeles, the greater Los Angeles area, San Diego and Sacramento Valley as well as Central Valley as well. The Center for Workers Rights, which is based in Sacramento, does great work on unemployment insurance, expanding benefits, allowing people to actually reach out to the Employment Development Department, the EDD. As you know, there's been a huge backlog and unprecedented number of people have applied for this in the situation. So I think that's something that we are looking at as well. So I would reach out to us. Since there are no questions, we'll end early today and talk about luck here for coming in and reaching and speaking to us today. Again, like I said, if there's any questions, please feel free to reach out. So am I.