Green Savits Employment Law Blog

The phrase “everyone makes mistakes” is often used to discourage people from dwelling on their errors. However, those whose mistakes resulted in criminal records are left with an unshakeable stigma that interferes with their ability to make a living and support themselves and their families. In an effort to provide job applicants with criminal records a fair chance in obtaining employment, “Ban the Box” legislation has been passed in over 100 states, cities and counties and President Obama directed that federal agencies follow suit. This year, both New Jersey and New York City have passed such legislation.

However, despite both...

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...

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...

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...