The FCA is a powerful tool for uncovering fraud and abuse of government programs. One reason for this is the FCA's qui tam provisions, which provide a mechanism for private citizens and their attorneys to blow the whistle on private parties who defraud government programs.
Sections Seven and Eight of the California Constitution primarily apply to public employment discrimination or other employment where State or Federal action is shown. Their protective effect is not so limited, See Rojo v. Klinger, 52 Cal.3d 65, 276 Cal. Rptr. 130, 801 P.2d 373.
Government Code §§11135 et seq. prohibit unlawfully denied benefits or discriminating based on ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, color, or physical or mental disability by employers that undertake programs or activities that are funded directly by the state, and employers that receive any financial assistance from the state.
The California Equal Pay Law, Labor Code section 1197.5, prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of sex in the payment of wages. Therefore, male and female employees in the same classification who perform substantially the same quantity and quality of work are entitled to equal pay, unless pay differentials are based on bona fide factors other than sex, such as seniority or merit. An employer who denies a person the equal pay guaranteed by this law is liable to the affected employee for any difference in wages due the employee, plus interest. The employer is also liable for damages in an amount equal to the total amount of lost wages.
The California legislature amended the FEHA in 1992 defining physical disability as a physiological condition that 'limits' major life activities. The legislature later clarified in the Poppink Act of 2000 that a physical disability under the FEHA does not require the federal test's 'substantial limitation' of a major life activity, but instead the CA law's 'limit.'