Some employers will fire an employee before the beginning of the new year alleging the employee’s job was being eliminated in a “restructuring”. Devious employers, to mask their illegal discrimination in the firing decision, will sometimes choose the end of the year to terminate the employee, citing an alleged business restructure plan to take effect in January, for the sole purpose of bolstering their bogus allegation that the employee’s position is being eliminated for bone fide business reasons.
If you think your employer may have chosen you to terminate in a bogus “Job Elimination” because of an illegal bias, such as because of your age, race, disability etc., or because you complained at about what you believed to be the employer’s unsafe or illegal practices, you may be right. See NJ Age Discrimination Attorney, Supervisor Asks When I’ll Retire, Is this Legal?
“Job Elimination” Can Be Bogus
If you are a worker who is being pushed out of your job and your boss says your job is being eliminated, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. I have represented numerous terminated employees who were told their job had been eliminated, and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. Don’t wait until after the termination. Once you are on notice that your job may be eliminated, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation and to discuss all of your options in the safest way for you. See Employment/Civil Rights Law.
If you were told your job is being eliminated and you are in a legally protected category, such as sex, age, and other workers who do the same work as you, are not being laid off, it could be evidence of the employer’s discriminatory bias. The same is true if year-end pink slips were disproportionally given to the older workers such as yourself, or to other workers in your protected class. The employer might have an illegal bias that influenced the decision in the job elimination.
Rise of Artificial Intelligence Utilized by Corporations in Business Decisions
With the rise of AI used by corporations incorporated into the running of their HR Departments, AI can influence assessments in Employee Performance Evaluations. The assessments for selecting employees for promotions or demotions could be prone to bias in the selection process when protected characteristics are a functionality of AI algorithms and machine learning applications.
A potential outcome of AI applications in the context of employment discrimination entails an increased risk of adverse consequences for employees with certain legally “protected” characteristics, such as disability and age, according to a study published by the Department of Labor and an independent research group. An AI tool may have algorithms that inadvertently (or by design) discriminate against certain groups when analyzing resumes or making hiring decisions, such as people of certain sex, race, age, or with disabilities. See NJ Employment Discrimination Attorney, Tech Development Workers and AI Discrimination.
If You Experienced a Poor Performance Evaluation for the First Time.
Unscrupulous scheming employers, fearing a subsequent lawsuit after they terminate a person, may establish a paper trail in the employee’s file, in a attempt to prove they have a legitimate legal defense to an allegation of illegal termination. This is frequently done by giving the employees low scores on their Employee Performance Evaluations.
Employees may first get an indication that they may be terminated or feel their employer is pressuring them to resign when they receive their first low grades on an Employee Performance Evaluation after years of receiving higher grades. An employee may be judged unfairly in a low graded Employee Performance Evaluation to mask an illegal bias and for the deviously establishing an alleged bone fide business defense i.e., the employer’s planning a preemptive strike should the employer subsequently has to defend on the terminated employee’s discrimination lawsuit. See New Jersey Age Discrimination Lawyer.
These Employee Performance Evaluations may contain inherent biases and judge the employee’s performance more harshly than other employees performing the same job but who are not in the same protected class such as age, sex, race, disability etc. See NJ Sex Discrimination Attorney, I’m a Female Executive Unfairly Evaluated.
It might be easy for one to not acknowledge possible management biases, particularly when the employer is courteous and has never harassed or made negative comments to the employee. If the employee had a cordial relationship with the supervisor, it is easy to set aside fears and not recognize management’s intention until the employer places what is referred to as PIP”, a “Performance Improvement Plan. These PIP’s may establish unrealistic bench marks, time frames and goals that are impossible for the employee to achieve, while other employees, not in that protected class, are not held to the same standards Poor grades in a Employee Performance Evaluation or in a PIP may be given as an excuse also not renew the employee’s contract. See Bergen County Employment Attorney, My Employment Contract Was Not Renewed, Is this Illegal Discrimination?
If You Quit Your Job, You May Lose Right to Prevail in a Lawsuit
In many instances of discrimination, if you quit your job, you may lose right to prevail in a discrimination lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed. If you are being pressured to resign, or are thinking of handing in a resignation letter, or think you will be fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options.
Don’t Sit on Your Rights
I have represented employees who were told their job was eliminated, and who were harassed and/or terminated and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. If you think you are being discriminated against, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I accept employment cases from all over New Jersey and have locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients.
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 every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.