Employment
Shirish Gupta, a full time neutral at JAMS, has substantial experience resolving employment disputes, including wage & hour, discrimination and retaliation. He began his mediation career resolving employment disputes statewide with the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing. Shirish has years of experience both as a neutral and as an employment practitioner.
With the rare qualification of having represented both employers and employees in litigation, along with his first chair employment arbitration experience, Shirish’s style encourages a calm, low-stress atmosphere in his mediations and arbitrations.
Shirish has a high resolution rate and is sought out by Silicon Valley startups, as well as Fortune 500 companies. In 2014, The Recorder conducted an extensive survey of Bay Area Attorneys and named Shirish the Best Independent Mediator.
Shirish is an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings, where he teaches Negotiation.
Read counsel comments about Shirish’s skills and style as a neutral.
Representative Employment Mediations
- Misclassification/ Wage & Hour
- PAGA claims and putative meal/rest break class arbitration involving national transportation and logistics company
- PAGA claims by clerical assistant, temporary office worker and front desk coordinator against a national staffing agency and its local franchisee
- PAGA claim by counter sales clerk against national tool rental company
- Wage & hour dispute brought by employees of a startup against their dissolved employer and its alleged successor-in-interest
- Retaliation case involving a retail sales clerk alleging termination as retaliation for reporting wage/hour violation
- Wage & hour case involving a retail sales clerk claiming missed meal/rest breaks over a two month period
- Restaurant workers alleging that they were not given meal/rest breaks
- Sous chef claiming that he was misclassified as exempt and should have qualified for overtime
- Delivery drivers and stock-room workers alleging failure to pay overtime or give meal/rest breaks
- Heavy equipment driver claiming that he was not paid a prevailing wage for the portion of time worked on a government contract
- Undocumented immigrant working as a dishwasher/cook claiming unpaid overtime, meal/rest breaks
- Undocumented immigrant working as a nursing home orderly claiming failure to pay minimum wage and overtime or provide meal/rest breaks
- HR recruiters claiming that they were not compensated for all meal/rest breaks missed
- Claims against a staffing agency for failure to pay missed meal/rest breaks
- Discrimination/wrongful termination
- Wrongful termination dispute between Master craftsman and an artisanal furniture company
- Racial discrimination case between an Army Lieutenant and his superior office
- Disability discrimination matter involving a public entity clerk and claims of nearly $1M in emotional distress damage
- Wrongful termination dispute between a supermarket employee and a national chain
- Pre-suit pregnancy discrimination claim alleging that a new mother was instructed to pump in a toilet stall
- Pre-suit sexual orientation discrimination claim by a gay assistant harbormaster
- Pre-suit age discrimination claim by deli manager against a prominent supermarket chain
- Pre-suit age discrimination claim by cashier against a local supermarket
- Racial discrimination claim against a prominent doctor’s group by a female African-American medical technician
- Developmentally disabled dishwasher claiming he was wrongly terminated and inadequately supervised
- Female corrections officers claiming that they were being subjected to gender harassment and pornography at work
- Unionized delivery driver alleging sexual harassment and disability discrimination
- Driver fired for gross insubordination for taking pictures on company property claiming retaliation for opposing harassment
- Minority police officers claiming that the police chief refused to promote them based on race
- Other employment matters
- Shareholder dispute at an employee-owned closely held compan
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) case brought by prospective employee against employer for rescinding offer based on an alleged false credit report
- Claim that a former employer is refusing to honor the terms of a severance agreement
- Government agency claiming that former senior officer converted over $100k of equipment for personal use
- Claim against employer for physical assault and wrongful imprisonment
