Disability Discrimination

Employees may or may not be cognizant that their employer is pressuring them to resign. They often will not recognize the full brunt of the employer’s intention until their employer places them on a “Performance Improvement Plan, commonly referred to as a “PIP”. If the employer presents the PIP in good faith, a PIP can be a formal document with the intention of helping employees improve their performance at work. It outlines an employee's performance issues and sets goals to be achieved. It is presented as a means to help employees who aren't meeting job goals or expectations to perform better.

Workers sometimes experience a disconnect between their voting rights and the status of their employment. Workers who vote, are choosing who will draft and pass legislation that maintains, restricts or expands their rights as employees and other civil rights.

When workers cast their ballots for the persons they want to have represent their interests in state and federal governments, they are voting for the representatives of their choice who have the power to ultimately draft, promote and vote on passing Federal and State laws that expand their rights as workers and other civil rights. Voting is serious business and is an opportunity that should not be passed up for any reason. A decision to refrain from voting for the federal and state representatives of your choosing may be giving a “pass” to future or current state or federal legislation that will restrict your rights.

If you asked your employer for a reasonable accommodation that would allow you to keep working and your employer denied you the accommodation, it is possible your employer is violating the law. If your employer is discriminating against you because you are disabled, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.

What You Need to Submit to Your Employer

If you are disabled and would be able to do the essential functions of your job with a reasonable accommodation, you should put such request in writing, stating the nature of your disability and why you need this accommodation, and additionally accompany your letter with another letter from your doctor stating the nature of your disability, and requesting what accommodation is needed to allow you to keep working at your job.

This letter should be served on your supervisor and the head of HR, unless your employee handbook directs you to submit this request to a different person, in which case, follow the company rules. Maintain proof that you served these requests for an accommodation, example - as by printing out the email transmission.

Numerous administrative agencies of the U.S. Department of Labor could be affected by the ruling of US Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 219 L.

Employees who experience discrimination because they are in a protected class, such as race, sex, age etc., often see other similarly situated employees in the same class also being discriminated against by their employer. This may lead them to wonder if they want to file a lawsuit with their co-workers who are similarly harmed by the discrimination, and if so, if it should be a class action lawsuit.

If you are experiencing despicable discrimination because you are a member of a protected class, such as race, age, sex, etc., you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.

Persons have asked for an interpretation of why civil rights advocates think a recent US Supreme decision could negatively affect employee rights and other American civil liberties. This article will provide a delineation of the legal process involved and expand the previous article.

Don’t sit on your rights. If you think your employer is committing illegal acts against you, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I have successfully represented workers whose employers were violating their rights 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.

Unverified and subjective concerns that an employee’s disability raises a safety issue cannot be a basis for termination. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination as well as Federal law prohibits public and private employers from discharging qualified workers based on actual or perceived disabilities which they assume poses a harm to the disabled employee or to other workers or clients.

If the Employee’s Disability Impairs Their Ability to Work

If an employee has a disability that impairs their ability to work safely if they do not have an accommodation to assist them, then the employee should ask the employer in writing to provide such an accommodation. The written request from the employee should be accompanied by a doctor’s note that states the disability, what is required for a reasonable accommodation, why it is needed, and requesting a specific accommodation to allow the employee to keep working.

The employee should keep a copy of the request and doctors note for oneself and serve it on the Head of HR or whomever the employee directs such communication to be made.

The employees who are the oldest in their workplace within their particular job group or job description, be it mid-level management, upper-level executive, and even vice-presidents, frequently have their work evaluated far more harshly than their younger counterparts, in the employer’s effort to pressure them to resign. Particularly after the older employee’s years of loyal service expanding the company’s profits, the employer’s sudden downturn of their assessment of their work, makes them undervalued and taken for granted. The frustration these older employees experience may cause them to just resign rather than be further humiliated. The younger replacement workers frequently have a starting salary that exceeds that of the more experienced, older long-term workers whom they replaced.

Don’t Sit on Your Rights

If you are a worker who is being forced out of your job, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.

Employees with disabilities are discriminated against in employment despite attempts to raise public awareness through public awareness education and cultural constructs such as the “Disability Pride Movement”. If you think your employer is discriminating against you because of your disability, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.

July of every year is designated as “Disability Pride Month” to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in July of 1990. In New Jersey, the NJ Law Against Discrimination and the ADA prohibits employment discrimination in employment and promotes inclusion in all aspects of society. Disability Pride attempts to stop the characterization of persons with disabilities in a manner which limits their options for action or changes their identity.

Employment discrimination claims because of a discriminatory animus against persons who are in legally protected classes must either cause change in employment status (see explanation below of what constitutes a change in employment status) and/or be harassment creating a hostile work environment. In New Jersey, a supervisor’s nagging/harassing behavior or rudeness toward you is not covered under discrimination law and generally is not illegal unless it results from your being a whistleblower or because you are a member of a legally protected class, which latter qualifier to sustain a claim comes as a surprise to many workers. Under N.J.S.