Current Events

If you are a pregnant worker requiring an accommodation for your pregnancy, you will have further protection from discrimination under a new law to go into effect later this month. Covered employers cannot make you take leave of absence if a reasonable accommodation for your pregnancy is available. President Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) on December 29, 2022, as part of an appropriations bill. Pregnant workers now gain further rights for pregnancy accommodations under a new federal law which goes into effect on June 27, 2023. You may read the text of bill here.

The New Jersey Sales Representatives’ Rights Act (NJSRRA)

If you think you are being cheated out of your sales commissions, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. A little-known statute, the NJ Sales Representatives Rights Act (NJSRRA) gives independently commissioned sales representatives important legal protections. These protections extend to after the end date of the contract. Violations of Section 2 of the Act entitle the sales representative to enhanced compensation in the amount of treble damages plus all reimbursement of all attorney fees and costs incurred in recovering the debt owed.

Sales representatives compensated by earned commissions paid by the principal with whom they have a contract, have impasses that only those standing in their shoes could begin to comprehend.

At least four cases spanning from 1998 to 2022 recognized that New Jersey’s whistleblower law, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”), can apply to NJ employees who work and live in other states.

Best Rationale to Apply CEPA Protection

Perhaps the best rationale to apply CEPA protection to out-of-state workers was offered by the court in Mehlman v. Mobil Oil Corp. In Mehlman v. Mobil Oil Corp.

It is important for employees to retain a copy of their employee handbook or employment manual both while they are employed and after they are severed from employment. You may or may not be entitled to certain rights and benefits depending on the language in the manual and other conditions. Your employer is not required to give you a copy of the manual once you are no longer an employee. Providing hard copies of employee handbooks was the initial way employers typically distributed them. Today, it is common for employers to publish them online and notify the employees as to their existence and the link.

Accidents can and do happen in any work environment. If you work in New Jersey and accidently damage workplace equipment, e.g., a printer, computer, camera, office furniture, mechanical and carpentry tools, ladder, furniture, etc., your employer can not make you pay for it and withhold your wages for the damaged equipment.

Contractual employees may be aghast if they are terminated in violation of their written contract. Employees who are employed according to the terms of a contract generally feel more secure in their position than those who work “at-will” without a contract. This may be particularly true of long-term employees and those holding executive positions because of the amount of time they have invested in the position. With a contract, they initially have more security as to their remaining employed, their wages and certain terms of their position such as expected hours, mandatory travel, etc., and the employer’s responsibilities to be maintained according to the terms of the contract.

Employees who have worked for the same employer for 10, 20, or 30 years may find they are terminated for no apparent reason. There is always a reason but the reason may be legal or illegal. If you find yourself in such a position, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I have represented both private and public employees who were fired for no apparent reason and was successful for recovering money compensating for them for lost wages, projected lost future raises, and pain and suffering.

If you have not already been finally severed from the position and are still working until the designated end-date, you should contact this office immediately before the designated termination date.

Municipality, County, State workers who are 70 years of age and older, should be made aware that their government employer can no longer force them out of their job based on their age. Amendments to the NJ Law Against Discrimination which went into effect on October 5, 2021, eliminated a loophole in the law which some government employers could utilize as a means to get rid of older workers and replace them with younger ones.

Prior to these Amendments, a NJ municipality, county, state agency or employer had to demonstrate that a such government employee’s mandatory retirement age bore, “a manifest relationship to employment in question.” This appellation, “a manifest relationship” was a legal slippery slope, an opinion too easy for any governmental entity to allege. This appellation perpetuated negative aging myths because it was prejudice, judgment or opinion formed against older workers predicated on the public employee’s age.

Employees with a disability which requires a reasonable accommodation to allow them to do their job, should ask for the accommodation in writing. This puts the employer on notice of their legal duty to engage in an interactive process with the employee to be able to provide the accommodation. An employer-employee interactive process is necessary when the employer cannot immediately provide the articulated accommodation requested. For example, teacher with diabetes who requests that her lunch period be moved from 3 pm to 11:30 am so as to not suffer a hypoglycemic event, has a clearly defined request for an accommodation that the employer can understand. There may be no need in some situations for the employer to engage in the interactive process if the employer can provide the requested accommodation.