Discrimination

If you are an employee who has a form of heart disease, or experienced some sort of heart episode in or out of the workplace, there may be unsubstantiated assumptions by your employer that you no longer can perform the essential responsibilities of your job with or without an accommodation. As the United States Supreme Court has noted, certain types of disabilities evoke stereotypical fears that perpetuate discrimination against its victims in all aspects of life, including employment. A review of the history of some of these disabilities provides a salient example that fear, rather than the handicap itself, is the major impetus for discrimination against persons with the disability.

Heart disease presents in many forms and employers will sometimes view a person returning from a leave due to a myocardial infarction or other heart condition as no longer having the ability to perform the essential functions of his or job. An executive employee could be a rising star on the upward mobility track until the employer learns the executive was born with congenital heart disease and then the accelerations in promotions abruptly halts.

Many workers deemed “essential” workers during COVID-19 pandemic deserve a living wage, yet many receive far less than a living wage although they are paid the required minimum wage by law or paid a few dollars higher than the required minimum. In New Jersey, the minimum wages is $13.00 an hour as of January 1, 2022 for most employers. In some other states it is as low as the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which federal minimum has not been raised in thirteen years.

It will not be news to many female employees with cancer, that employers treat female employees with cancer disparately from men with cancer. This is a synergy of both disability discrimination and sex discrimination. Women without disabilities are often held to a higher standard in employee performance evaluations than are men. This is particularly true when a woman is in an occupation that is traditionally dominated by men, where she may be seen as an “imposter” simply because of her sex.

When a woman also has a disability such as cancer, she is often held to an even higher standard for promotions, or even retention,  than a male employee who has cancer.

Despite attempts by world health organizations to eradicate many of the fears surrounding epilepsy, employees living with epilepsy may experience illegal employment discrimination in both the public and private sectors. Centuries old superstitions, fears and fallacies about being in the presence of persons who have seizure disorders have their historical roots associating seizure disorders with danger, sorcery, unpredictable supernatural powers and witchcraft. While modern science has certainly debunked the formerly widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation of seizures, some persons in the 21^st century nevertheless emotionally and physically distance themselves from others who are known to have epilepsy.

Unfounded fears by co-workers that they in some way may be harmed by a person having a seizure, may contribute to illegal and discriminatory actions of the employer.

This was such the issue heard by the NJ Supreme Court in a 1988 case brought by an employee against his former employer, a supermarket, who terminated him because they thought his epilepsy posed a danger to other workers if he had a seizure while in the workplace.

New Jersey’s increase in the minimum wage by one dollar an hour beginning January 1, 2022 is insufficient for most workers to sustain themselves. Commencing immediately on  January 1, 2022, the minimum wage will increase in twenty-one states and thirty-five other jurisdictions. In the majority of those jurisdictions, the minimum wage will be or surpass $15 per hour to be required to be paid some or all employers. Four states and more than twenty other jurisdictions later in 2022 will institute additional minimum wage rate increases. Before December 31, 2022, eighty-one jurisdictions in the United States i.

All employment positions must be carried out under the umbrella of state and federal laws,  and for some driver employees that includes maintaining an accurate driving-time logbook. Valid whistleblower claims can relate to your objecting to what you reasonably believe is your employer committing fraud upon the public or the government, or complaining about violation of other laws such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. I have successfully represented employees in whistleblower claims and was successful in recovering six figure settlement money for them. In one such case,  the employer terminated the head of HR who was in charge of hiring. The employer instructed the head of HR to not hire persons of a certain race; when the employee objected to this illegal business practice and refused to do so, the employer illegally terminated her in retaliation.

“I earned a Masters’ degree and Doctorate and the men who do my job still earn more money than me,” - a present day women’s lament heard among professional women in all occupations.

It is demoralizing to women who have given their time, paid extensive money and frequently gone into debt, and made numerous other personal sacrifices to achieve a higher education, that it has not been beneficially for them financially in terms of being on salary par with men.

Higher education for women does not close the pay gap relative to men for women of all educational levels.

Women who are high school graduates with no college education only earn 76.2% of what men who are high school graduates without a college education earns according to 2020 annual averages released in

Some employers exploit their employees based on their immigration status. Many of these workers are prevented or manipulated from asserting workplace rights for fear of retaliation. If one worker complains and then is suspended or fired in retaliation, the termination sends a chilling message to all the other exploited workers to remain silent. Laws in general prohibit employers from retaliating against immigrant workers for exercising their workplace rights regardless of the workers' immigration status. NJ state laws and Federal agencies seek to protect all workers from employer violations regardless of immigration status.

Construction workers may face a bevy of hazardous job conditions from abrasive blasting to construction in confined spaces that make working unsafe. Because of the unique nature of their work, there are physical dangers related to their employment that workers in other professions do not encounter. Public and private employers of those who do construction work are required to adhere to legal regulations under Federal and State laws for workers related to the following (not all inclusive list):

Potential Combustible Dust Explosions 

Storage of Flammable Combustible Materials

Demolishing or Salvaging Structures Where Asbestos Is Present (extremely important as the damage to one’s body may not become evident until decades later)

Electrical Hazards

Cranes and Derricks in Construction and Qualified Riggers

Signal Person Qualifications as to Cranes and Derricks

Compressed Gas Cylinders

Scaffolding as to Employee Safe Access, Platforms and Guardrails

Protection from Falling Objects

Chemical Toxic Gases, Vapors, Fumes, Dusts, and Mists (damage to one’s body may not become evident until years later)

Lead Poisoning (extremely important as the damage to one’s body may not become evident as to decades later)

Crystalline Silica (employees must be protected from crystalline silica by appropriate engineering controls, personal protective equipment, respirators)

Malfunctioning Power Tools, Improper Maintenance of Power Tools

If you are construction worker who  reported to your employer, complained about, or refused to participate in what you reasonably believe to be employer violations of health or safety codes or other legal regulations, and your  employer retaliated against you by cutting your hours, demoting you or by other forms of retaliation, you may have a valid Whistleblower claim under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act, (CEPA) N.J.S.

When you cast your vote for the elected officials whom you want to represent your interests, you, the voter, determine which representatives you want to write, sponsor and pass bills that will affect your civil rights and which determine your rights as an employee.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was approved by the US House of Representatives on August 24, 2021. It has been widely discussed that the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Rejecting a more narrowly tailored definition of homosexuality as is used by some other states, the NJ legislature specifically includes many employees to be protected workers who have a right to employment without discrimination because of affectional or sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression as well as some other protected classes.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) Has a Broad Definition of “Homosexuality” as to Protected Workers.

This broad definition give legal protection to many persons who otherwise would not be covered under the legal protective umbrella of the NJLAD. The statute states that:

“Homosexuality means affectional, emotional, or physical attraction or behavior which is primarily directed towards persons of the same gender.”

The NJLAD specifically stipulates that all NJ workers have a right to employment without discrimination because of affectional or sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression as well as some other protected classes.