On August 12, 2026, the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) announced that the City of Simi Valley agreed to pay $230,000 to one of its workers. The worker says the city broke California's fair employment law.
She says her manager showed her inappropriate photos at work. She reported it. She says the city did not act on her complaint. Instead, her manager wrote her up over an unrelated matter. She saw this as payback for speaking up.
Around the same time, the worker asked to change her schedule because of a disability. She gave the city a note from her doctor. She says other workers had already gotten the same kind of schedule change. But the city said no to her.
The city settled the case without admitting it did anything wrong. Along with the money, it agreed to train supervisors and report back to the state.
This case raises a few different issues under California law — harassment, retaliation, and disability accommodation. This post focuses on the last one. In California, when a worker asks for help doing the job because of a disability, the employer must try to work it out with them. Often that means making a reasonable change — like a different schedule — so the worker can keep doing the job. Saying no can be against the law (Cal. Gov. Code § 12940(m)). California also requires the employer to actually talk it through with the worker in good faith — what the law calls the "interactive process" (§ 12940(n)). That duty is even harder to duck when other workers got the same kind of help.
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