If you are an employee who reported or complained about discrimination to your employer and were subsequently demoted, written up for bogus reasons, or had other retaliatory actions taken against you, you may have a claim for retaliation in some circumstances. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination protects employees from retaliation for engaging in protected activities such as objecting or reporting workplace discrimination that is based on a class protected under the statute, including the classes of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, familial status, disability, see New Jersey Disability Discrimination Lawyer, liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States, N.J.S.A.§ 10:5-4 and the more recently added classes of pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions under N.J.S.A.§ 10:5-3.1. See NJ Pregnancy Discrimination Attorney, Pregnant Worker Terminated or Pressured into Resigning.
Don’t sit on your rights. If you think your employer unlawfully retaliated against you for reporting or objecting to discrimination, you should contact this law office immediately for a free consultation. This law office accepts cases from all over New Jersey and has locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients. Call today for a free consultation.
Examples of Illegal Retaliation for Reporting Discrimination:
While illegal retaliation for objecting to or reporting such discrimination may be a resulting termination, it more frequently can initially seem less severely adverse and consequential, although it could be a prelude to a later termination or forced resignation, such as if your employer:
Reduced your assigned hours of work, reduced pay or benefits;
Assigned you to more arduous and unpleasant tasks that were never assigned before you complained or reported discrimination;
Demoted you to a lesser status employment position or title, with or without a reduction in pay;
Began excluding you from in-person or online meetings and groups chats, which were designed and are needed to adequately provide you with updated information required for you to satisfactorily perform your job, see New Jersey Age Discrimination Lawyer;
Giving you unjustified negative employee performance evaluations, although prior, you had received higher evaluations. This is a ruse that employers sometimes use to justify a later termination. See Employee Performance Evaluations.
Creating an intimidating and/or harassing hostile work environment to pressure you to resign. As the NJ Appellate Divisions stated: Relevant factors include, "the employee's loss of status, a clouding of job responsibilities, diminution in authority, disadvantageous transfers or assignments, and toleration of harassment by other employees...as well as "assignment to different or less desirable tasks." Mancini v. Twp. of Teaneck, 349 N.J. Super. 527 (App. Div. 2002). See NJ Employment Attorney, I Was Put on a PIP: the Dangers of a PIP.
A case in point, Johnson v. State, 2022 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1137, involved a Black attorney employed by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance; he was assigned to Legislative and Regulatory Affairs and subsequently appointed Special Assistant to the Director of Banking. He enjoyed positive performance reviews until 2006, when he was transferred to a position with the Pinelands Development Credit Bank. In 2008, he filed a discrimination suit. While the suit was pending, he was subsequently harassed, treated further disparately, and placed on a performance improvement plan.
Retaliation for reporting discrimination while one is still employed, is illegal both before and after a suit is filed. In Johnson v. State, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division found that Plaintiff's filing of the first discrimination complaint was clearly a protected activity. While that lawsuit was pending, he suffered an adverse employment action: his involuntary reassignment. The decisionmakers who transferred him to OCF knew of his first lawsuit. The Court found that a jury could find plaintiff established retaliation.
See NJ Employment Attorney, Black Female Employees and Discrimination at Work.
If you resign, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit.
In many instances of discrimination and retaliation, if you resign, 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. If you are thinking of resigning, or think you will be fired, or have been fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options in the safest way for you.
What You Can Do
If you are being subjected to unlawful workplace discrimination and/or were fired, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I have represented numerous employees who were discriminated against and I was successful in recovering multiple six-figure financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering, and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. I accept 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.