Many long-term employees who have renewable annual contracts may go along seamlessly until they become an older member in the workplace. Then unexpectedly, the employer alleges some bogus reason to not renew the contract, when the real reason is age discrimination. Courts analyze the non-renewal of a contract similarly to a termination. If the Court were to determine that such a termination constitutes illegal discrimination, then so would the non-renewal of a contract.
I have represented contract workers pushed out of jobs because of their age, pregnancy, and other illegal reasons and was successful in recovering moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages, and in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering. If you are a contract worker and your contract is not being renewed, and you think your age, whistleblowing, or any other protected category may be the real reason, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I accept cases from all over NJ and have locations in southern, central, and northern NJ to meet with clients.
Negative Employee Performance Evaluations
Frequently, when an employer wants to get rid of an older worker and replace her/him with a younger one, the first step the employer may take is to give the worker a negative employee performance evaluation, or place them on a P.I.P. (Personal Improvement Plan). The employer may give the worker a written warning that their work is deficient in some way and place the warning in the employee’s file. When this happens, the employer is setting the stage of a pre-emptive strike in an attempt to have a valid legal defense if the worker subsequently files an unlawful termination lawsuit. In legal terminology, such a bogus reason is referred to the defense’s “pretext” for discrimination.
Discrimination Based on the Renewable-Contracts-Only Business Model
NJ courts treat the non-renewal of a contract by a longtime employee as a termination, rather than a failure to hire.
Prior to the 2021 Amendments to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), when a conniving employer wanted to get rid of an older worker with a renewable contract, the employer framed the non-renewal of the older employee’s contract as a failure to re-hire rather than as a termination. This was because the LAD’s prohibition against an employer failing to hire or promote an individual based on age had a carve-out provision, so the prohibition against employment age discrimination in hiring and promotion did not apply to employees over 70 years old, i.e., the employer did not have to hire or promote a person over 70 years of age. Some employers thought they would be able to circumvent the LAD’s prohibition on illegal termination if they had a renewable-contracts-only business model: the employer would not re-hire the employee, not renew an older worker’s contract, and thereby be included in the carve-out provision. These employers believed they would be able to have a continuous workforce of fresh young faces based on the attrition driven by the renewable-contracts-only business model. However, in a NJ lawsuit brought by a septuagenarian against a community college, the NJ Supreme Court in 2010 held that a non-renewal of contract is tantamount to a forced resignation, and that “forced resignations” were equivalent to actual terminations and therefore illegal under the LAD. Nini v. Mercer County Community College, 202 N.J. 98 (2010).
The amended LAD, which took effect in late 2021, eliminated any doubt regarding this issue by deleting the age 70 carve-out exception limit for hiring and promotion. The amended statute allows employees 70 and over who claim age discrimination in hiring and promotion, to file a lawsuit in court, which in addition to reinstatement and back pay, the plaintiff can seek to recover compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.
Prejudice in the sense of a judgment or opinion formed predicated on a person’s age is the basis of all age discrimination, which opinion proves on examination to be unrelated to the employee’s job performance or to be completely nonexistent. The adoption of the 2021 amendments carries out the elemental intent of discrimination law - to protect workers against such prejudgment. The prior loophole in the NJ law allowed severe and egregious consequences against persons in their 70's. Quite shocking that this loophole existed for the many decades in which it defined the law which was intended to protect against discrimination.
If You Quit Your Job, You May Lose Right to Prevail in a Lawsuit
If you are thinking of quitting, or think you will be fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options in the safest way for you. In many instances of discrimination, if you quit your job, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed.
Let Me Fight for You
I am successful in bringing employee lawsuits against governmental entities and private employers and recovering money for victims of age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and other discrimination. If you have been fired, not had your contract renewed, think you are being pushed out of your job or retaliated against, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and in every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.