Just a year and a half ago, the New Jersey legislature passed the New Jersey Pregnant Worker’s Fairness Act (“PWFA”), which prohibits pregnancy discrimination and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant employees. However, the PWFA does not affect an employee’s entitlement to paid or unpaid leave. This begs the question, what maternity/paternity leave is an employee entitled to? While many companies in the United States are beginning to establish paid parental leave policies, unlike many other countries, the U.S. does not require that employers provide job protected, let alone paid, leave for new parents. ...
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Employment Attorneys Serving Northern and Central New Jersey
August 10, 2015
There are a number of whistleblower laws that are intended to protect employees who report, object to or refuse to participate in conduct that may be either illegal, fraudulent or endangers the health and safety of individuals and the public. Within the past month, there have been two significant legal developments that have interpreted New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Proctection Act ("CEPA") and the Dodd Frank law passed by Congress in 2010.
The first development involves the CEPA statute that protects New Jersey employees from employer retaliation against those employees who are whistleblowers. During the past several years...
Read More Category: Employee Contracts, Whistleblower Retaliation
July 13, 2015
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled late last June, 2015 State v. Saavedra that an employee who takes an employer's confidential documents may be criminally prosecuted and go to jail if found guilty. In that case, a school board employee was alleged to have taken confidential student files along with other documents that contained personal information about other individuals Many of the documents allegedly taken were originals or the only copies contained in the school board files. As we've indicated elsewhere in an interview with the New Jersey Law Journal, this ruling will create a chilling effect on employees who rightly believe that...
Read More February 23, 2015
The Los Angeles Times published an article today about women leaving the IT industry in droves. As the article points out, women are not considered able to execute fast enough or even to be entrepenuers. Given the projected expansion of the tech industry over the next decade, the tech industry's biased view of women is tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot. In any event, this male stereotypical attitude can and will inevitably lead to violations of gender discrimination statutes. Hopefully, these companies will learn their lesson but it is not looking good.
Category: Discrimination, Employee Contracts, Hostile Work Environment
February 20, 2015
If you ever want to see an employer's attorney head explode, all you have to do is observe that attorney's reaction when he/she learns that an ex-employee plaintiff has taped conversations in the workplace. This is especially true when the employer's decision-makers have testified in depositions to a completely false explanation of why the employee was fired/demoted etc. and the tape recording completely contradicts that testimony. I have been involved in trying two cases where my fired employee client alleged an illegal discriminatory firing and tape recorded conversations in the workplace prior to the firing. Both cases captured...
Read More February 19, 2015
Individuals frequently call for advice concerning the harassment and discrimination they experienced. They tell me they just couldn’t take it anymore and that going to work each day had become an anxiety-filled event, so they resigned from their employment. I assure them that they should not doubt the choice they made, because ultimately they did what they needed to stay happy and healthy. But often, under New Jersey law, that choice has limited, if not eliminated, their legal remedies.
In the employment discrimination context, "constructive discharge" is when an employer knowingly permits conditions of employment so intolerable...
Read More Category: Discrimination, Hostile Work Environment
January 20, 2015
I am learning more and more that my mother was right about a lot of things but particularly about timing. A superb golfer in her day (she was a single digit handicap at her peak) she taught me that properly timing the start of the downswing was critical to both accuracy and distance. And in love, she always told me that timing was critical when it came to marriage, i.e, whether my future wife and I would be "ready" when we first meet. She was absolutely right!
Timing is also critical in proving an employer's illegal motive for firing, demotions, punitive transfers, etc.. For example, when an employee reports, objects to or...
Read More January 06, 2015
This past Sunday, as I watched the Dallas Cowboys gain momentum and come back against the Detroit Lions, I was more than distracted by what I recently learned about how the NFL teams treat their cheerleaders. These women cheer for their team during games, practice for hours in the days leading up to games, attend public appearances, and maintain their bodies in incredible, physical shape. However, despite their significant value to the team they cheer for, the amount they are paid for their talent is often pathetic, bordering on abusive.
In September 2014, the Raiderette’s settled their lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders for...
Read More Category: Employee Contracts, Wage and Hour Violations
December 28, 2014
With the upcoming New Year, it is time for resolutions that we all hopefully will keep. For employees, please adopt this resolution: I will never email, text or post on my social media page content that I know could be offensive, violate someone's privacy or just be plain mean. Failure to follow this simple rule just got a long time New Jersey municpal employee suspended without pay and possibly losing his job for distributing racist emails. So to avoid coming to spend legal fees on a law firm like ours, all you employees out there adopt and follow this simple New Year's resolution.
Happy New Year everyone!
Category: Discrimination, Employee Contracts, Hostile Work Environment
December 23, 2014
Since Hanukkah is coming to an end, Christmas is just about here, and Kwanza is just around the corner, I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you all a bit about your rights as religious observers in the workplace.
The most important thing to know is that under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, employers are required to prevent and/or cure harassment and are prohibited from discriminating against employees on the basis of their religion. This means that, in addition to other terms or conditions of your employment, getting a job, keeping a job, or getting a raise, a promotion, or benefits cannot be conditioned...
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