Abramson Labor Group is a Burbank employment law firm representing employees in wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wage-and-hour, and other workplace disputes. Our headquarters is located at 1700 W Burbank Blvd, so Burbank employees work with a legal team based in their own city.
Our office sits at 1700 W Burbank Blvd, minutes from the studios, the airport, and Burbank’s major employers. We focus entirely on employee rights, never employers, and provide free intake assessments in English and Spanish.
You do not need to know the legal name of your claim before reaching out. Call (213) 493-6300 or contact our intake team to tell us what happened. You do not pay ANYTHING unless we win!
Why Choose a Burbank-Based Employment Law Firm?
Most employment firms that claim to serve Burbank are based somewhere else. Abramson Labor Group is not. Our headquarters is in Burbank, which means we know the local employers, the local industries, and the courts where Burbank cases are heard.
At Abramson Labor Group, we represent employees, not employers. Our work includes wrongful termination, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, racial discrimination, disability accommodations, retaliation, unpaid overtime, and other wage claims. We bring more than 35 years of combined experience, over 1000+ five-star Google reviews, attorneys recognized by Super Lawyers and Rising Stars, and trial experience that includes a unanimous jury verdict in a retaliation case.
Why Burbank Workers Need a Lawyer Who Knows the Local Industries
Burbank is often called the media capital of the world, and its workforce reflects that. The city hosts a daytime working population far larger than its roughly 100,000 residents, drawn by three of the largest media companies in the United States along with major healthcare, aviation, and public-sector employers. Each of those industries has its own common pattern of employment-law violations.
Entertainment and Media
Burbank is home to the corporate headquarters of The Walt Disney Company on South Buena Vista Street and to Warner Bros. Discovery on Warner Boulevard, the city’s two largest employers, along with NBCUniversal, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Cartoon Network Studios, and dozens of post-production, visual effects, and animation companies. Workers in these industries, including production assistants, post-production staff, animators on project contracts, writers’ room support, and freelance crew, often face exempt misclassification, unpaid overtime, long hours without proper break compliance, and disputes over whether they are employees or independent contractors.
Healthcare
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center on South Buena Vista Street employs thousands of nurses, technicians, aides, and administrative staff. Healthcare workers frequently experience missed meal and rest breaks, mandatory overtime, and retaliation for raising patient safety concerns. California law provides specific protections for healthcare employees, including the right to uninterrupted breaks.
Aviation and Public Sector
Hollywood Burbank Airport is one of the city’s largest employers, and the City of Burbank and Burbank Unified School District employ thousands more. Aviation, airport-adjacent, and public-sector workers may face wage and hour violations, discipline that follows protected complaints, and disputes over overtime and classification.
When Does Workplace Treatment Become a Legal Problem?
Unfair treatment becomes a legal issue when it violates a wage law, targets a protected characteristic, punishes protected activity, or interferes with protected leave or an accommodation. Not every harsh decision breaks the law, but the employer’s reason and the surrounding facts determine whether legal protections apply.
A manager may be difficult without committing unlawful harassment. The situation raises different concerns when repeated sexual messages, racial remarks, age-based comments, or disability-related insults shape the worker’s conditions or opportunities. The same distinction applies to termination: California generally permits at-will employment, but employers cannot fire or discipline workers for illegal reasons such as discrimination or retaliation.
Several details may help clarify whether workplace conduct deserves closer review:
- The treatment began after a complaint, leave request, or accommodation request.
- The employer’s explanation conflicts with earlier reviews or messages.
- Workers outside the protected group received more favorable treatment.
- Pay records omit hours or duties the employer required.
- Management knew about harassment but failed to address it appropriately.
What Makes a Burbank Termination Unlawful?
A termination violates California law when discrimination, retaliation, protected leave, whistleblowing, or another prohibited reason influences the decision. An employer may call the action restructuring, poor performance, or position elimination, but that label does not settle why the worker was selected.
Consider a post-production employee let go during a “restructuring” shortly after requesting medical leave, or an older animator replaced by a younger contractor after years of positive reviews. If the timing and the employer’s inconsistent explanations line up, a Burbank wrongful termination lawyer may examine whether an unlawful reason drove the decision. We also represent workers in wrongful termination cases across Los Angeles County, including Burbank.
How Do Wage and Overtime Violations Affect Burbank Workers?
Wage violations occur when an employer fails to pay for required work, denies earned overtime, interrupts legally required breaks, or misclassifies an employee as exempt. California wage and hour laws are among the strongest in the country: employers must pay at least the state minimum wage for every hour worked, time-and-a-half for hours over 8 in a day or 40 in a week, and double time for hours over 12 in a day. A salary or job title does not automatically remove overtime rights.
In Burbank’s entertainment sector, exempt misclassification is especially common. Production and post-production staff are sometimes labeled exempt or treated as independent contractors when their actual duties and level of control point to employee status. Schedules, call sheets, deal memos, pay stubs, and time entries may help show what a worker actually did. Abramson Labor Group handles California wage and hour cases involving unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, missed breaks, and misclassification.
Sexual Harassment and Hostile Work Environment
Sexual harassment includes unwanted messages, sexual requests, touching, comments, images, and other sex-based conduct that changes the conditions of employment. California recognizes two forms: quid pro quo harassment, where a supervisor conditions job benefits on sexual favors, and hostile work environment harassment, where the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of employment. When a supervisor is the harasser, the employer is strictly liable. When the harasser is a coworker or third party, the employer is liable if it knew or should have known and failed to act.
You do not need to report to HR first, you do not need witnesses, and you do not need the harassment to be physical. Our Los Angeles sexual harassment attorneys represent employees facing harassment throughout the county.
Workplace Discrimination
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age (40 and older), disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy, religion, and military or veteran status. FEHA applies to employers with five or more employees and provides broader protections than federal law. Its damages include back pay, front pay, emotional distress, and punitive damages, with no cap.
Discrimination does not need to be stated openly. Patterns of unequal treatment, refusal to hire, unequal pay, denial of promotions, harsher discipline, or termination can all point to it.
Retaliation and Whistleblower Protection
California law protects employees from retaliation for exercising their legal rights. If you reported unpaid wages, complained about discrimination or harassment, filed a workers’ compensation claim, requested medical leave, refused to participate in illegal activity, or reported a safety violation, and your employer responded by firing you, cutting your hours, changing your schedule, demoting you, or increasing scrutiny, you may have a retaliation claim.
Multiple California statutes prohibit retaliation, including Labor Code section 1102.5 (whistleblower protection), FEHA, Labor Code section 98.6 (wage claims), Labor Code section 132a (workers’ compensation), and CFRA and FMLA (medical and family leave). Remedies can include reinstatement, back pay, front pay, emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. Learn more about what counts as retaliation under California law.
How Long Do Burbank Workers Have to Act?
Employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation complaints generally require an intake form with the California Civil Rights Department within three years of the last harmful act. California wage-claim periods vary based on the violation, and unpaid-wage claims often reach back three years. Workers’ compensation retaliation claims are generally subject to a one-year deadline, and whistleblower claims under Labor Code section 1102.5 generally allow three years. Because different claims follow different clocks, a Burbank workers’ rights attorney may help identify the relevant dates rather than assuming every claim follows the same deadline. The sooner you act, the stronger your position.
How Does Our Burbank Office Serve You?
Abramson Labor Group is headquartered at 1700 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91506. Being based in Burbank means we are close to the employers our clients work for and the courts where their cases are heard, and it means a Burbank worker does not have to travel far to sit down with an employment lawyer. Our intake team explains how meetings, document sharing, and communication work, and we represent employees in every county in California.
Frequently Asked Questions
You do not have to hire an employment lawyer located in your city, but working with a Burbank-based firm can make meetings and communication more convenient. Abramson Labor Group is headquartered at 1700 W Burbank Blvd and represents employees throughout Burbank and Los Angeles County.
We represent employees in wrongful termination, workplace harassment, discrimination, retaliation, unpaid wages, overtime, misclassification, accommodation disputes, and other employment matters. Abramson Labor Group represents employees, not employers.
Yes. Your evaluation with Abramson Labor Group is free. You can call our office or contact our intake team online to tell us what happened and learn whether your situation may warrant further review.
Abramson Labor Group is headquartered at 1700 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91506. Our Burbank office serves employees throughout the city and surrounding Los Angeles County communities.
No. Your evaluation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win your case. If we recover compensation through a settlement or verdict, our fee comes from the recovery.
Yes. You do not have to wait until you are fired to speak with an employment lawyer. Employees may seek legal guidance while still employed if they are dealing with harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wage issues, accommodation disputes, or other workplace problems.
Talk With a Burbank Employment Lawyer
You have the right to ask whether what happened at work may violate California law. Because our office is right here in Burbank, getting answers can start with a short, local conversation. Abramson Labor Group represents Burbank workers in wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, wage, accommodation, and retaliation matters. Call (213) 493-6300 or contact our intake team for a free intake assessment in English or Spanish.