New 2019 California Laws Fight Wage Theft, Sexual Harassment

Cinefamily staffers were reportedly subject to wage theft, workplace bullying, and sexual harassment and abuse. A set of new workplace laws went into effect in California on January 1. While the damage has already been done at Cinefamily — under the Harkhams’ watchful eye — Fairfax Cinema would be well advised to heed these new laws. For that matter, Fairfax Cinema would also be well advised to heed all those boring old laws, too, regarding minimum wage, forced overtime, misclassification, improper termination, and health and safety.

California workers have a raft of new protections; in the wake of #MeToo, many of these laws relate to equity, transparency, and harassment. In addition, the minimum wage went up, and the state is setting new diversity requirements for Boards of Directors.

Read more about new employment and workplace protections:

“California Employers: Be Prepared for These New Workplace Laws,” Society for Human Resource Management, October 9, 2018
“2019 Labor & Employment Law Update for California Employers,” and “Ringing in the New Laws: 2019 California Employment Roundup,” National Law Review, December 11 and 18, 2018.
“New California Employment Laws to Take Effect in January 2019 and Beyond,” Lexology, December 3, 2018.
“New state laws: From workplace harassment protections to mandating women on boards,” CNBC, December 28, 2018.

TL;DR

For the decade of Cinefamily’s existence, and for a certain sort of weirdo, the nonprofit single-screen cinematheque was the best thing about L.A.

In August 2017 we discovered Cinefamily was also a harmful place, especially for workers and for women. Reporting at the time focused on workplace sexual harassment, but when this website investigated we found a deeper rot. Former insiders told us of alleged assault, retaliation, wage theft, and embezzlement—as well as fraud against distributors, taxpayers, and regulators.

Cinefamily’s $2 million annual budget was subsidized by taxpayers and overseen by professionals. If the board of directors had done its job, damage may have been reduced, and Cinefamily might still exist. Instead, evidence indicates some directors were not only aware of problems, but were involved in covering them up.

This website provides original reporting as an ongoing call for institutional responsibility. We seek what the board promised: a credible and comprehensive accounting, victims heard and creditors paid, and a new approach to corporate governance and community accountability.

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