Employment

If Harriet Tubman were to be alive today, it is likely she would be working to get the Bill to restore the Voting Rights Act, introduced by the Senate on July 22, 2020, passed. This bill is named after John Lewis, the civil rights leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. This bill is a response to the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision which set aside major parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which eliminated barriers making it difficult for Blacks to vote. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would require that any state with a history of voting discrimination within the past 25 years to seek federal approval before making any changes to its voting procedures.

If your employer under the New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law refuses to give you permission to take time to care for yourself or a family member who has become unwell due to the Covid-19 virus or who won’t pay you for that time as mandated by the law, you should contact this office. Some employers are attempting to skirt his law, violating this law, as the pandemic is now in the midst of its second year impacting employees and their families. If your employer retaliates against you for your asking for such time off, you may also have a retaliation claim against your employer.

Under this statute, an employee is permitted to use accrued earned sick leave as it relates to the  Covid-19 pandemic for any of the following reasons:

(1) time needed for diagnosis, care, or treatment of, or recovery from, an employee’s mental or physical illness, injury or other adverse health condition, or for preventive medical care for the employee;

(2) time needed for the employee to aid or care for a family member of the employee during diagnosis, care, or treatment of, or recovery from, the family member’s mental or physical illness, injury or other adverse health condition, or during preventive medical care for the family member;

(3) time during which the employee is not able to work because of a closure of the employee’s workplace, or the school or place of care of a child of the employee, by order of a public official due to an epidemic or other public health emergency, or because of the issuance by a public health authority of a determination that the presence in the community of the employee, or a member of the employee’s family in need of care by the employee, would jeopardize the health of others.

The definition of “family member” in this statute is broad.

“Help! My employer is grilling me about statements I gave to the Workers’ Compensation insurer.”

Being out of work because you were injured on the job can be extremely financially burdensome. The fact that you were injured because you were trying to do your job seems doubly unjust. Applying for and receiving Workers’ Compensation benefits can help relieve some of the financial burden. However, some unscrupulous employers will retaliate against an injured worker for seeking Workers’ Compensation benefits.

If you are an IT worker who is feeling the sting of age discrimination, you are not alone. Even if you are an IT worker for an employer who is not a tech company, you still may be experiencing age discrimination because there is a perception that younger workers will automatically be more knowledgeable about innovative industry trends. This is true even if you are the IT Systems manager for a public entity such as a town or a school. Younger workers are shown favor simply because of their age. Don’t sit on your rights.

On July 22, 2020, the Senate introduced a bill to restore the Voting Rights Act. It’s named after John Lewis, the civil rights leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. The Honorable John Lewis was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. He is known for being one of the main leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington along with Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and Philip Randolph.

If your employer previously gave you good performance evaluations but is now giving you poor evaluations or even putting you on a “PIP”, a Performance Improvement Plan, you should call this law office today. I have successfully represented numerous employees of both public and private employers, who were unfairly placed on a “PIP” and given a  warning to improve or risk termination. This undeserved downturn in evaluations is a ruse sometimes utilized by employers to have a trumped-up justification to fire an employee. Things to be noted are:

Workload Increase

Has your workload recently increased? If your workload significantly increased prior to the PIP, it could be that the employer is specifically setting you up to fail by setting unrealistic goal markers.

Job Duty Changes

If your job description and/or duties changed prior to the PIP, your employer could again be preparing to have an “alleged” legitimate reason to terminate you.

The New Jersey Superior Court ruled in favor of an employee who complained to the employer about unsafe Covid-19 practices in the workplace in a whistleblower case.

Unlawful Retaliation for Objecting to Employer’s Failure to Follow Covid-19 Health Safeguards

As was recently decided in the case of Mark Loeb v. Vantage Custom Classics, Inc., if your employer retaliated against you for your complaining about or objecting to what you reasonably believed was the employer’s failure to follow proper health safeguards in the workplace as to Covid-19, you may have a whistleblower claim under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA.)

If You Notified Employer That You Were Exposed to/or Had Contracted Covid-19

If you reported to your employer that you were exposed to Covid-19 and you wanted to follow proper government and/or medical guidelines as to quarantine, etc.

Although the Enron and WorldCom scandals around 2001-2002 perhaps caught the public eye like no other frauds, all levels of employees in all occupations may be asked to participate in a fraud to further the employer’s business agenda. They may believe there is fraud by employer’s practices without themselves being asked to participate. Employees may experience employment retaliation when they refuse or object to such business practices which they reasonably believe violates law or perpetuates a fraud. Such refusal or objection is considered “protected activity” under numerous state and federal statutes. If your employer did retaliate against you because of the “protected activity”, you may have a workplace retaliation claim, also known as a whistleblower claim.

Apartheid is a government law, policy, or legal system of segregation and discrimination on grounds of race. Apartheid is much more than segregation by race.  It is shocking to me to learn how many people made it through 16+ years of schooling yet have no knowledge that Apartheid in the United States, Apartheid that was equal in its severity to that of South Africa at its worst, existed in the US from the 1870's until the mid-1960's. How can this not be truthfully taught in the schools?

There is often a gratuitous mention of Black female historical leaders during Black History Month or Women’s History month, but it is overlooked that brave and hard-working Black women are the backbone of America on many fronts.  Most people have heard of renowned abolitionist Harriet Tubman but do not know the extent of her bravery, selflessness and acts of heroism, or that she resided in NJ in the early 1850's, or that she worked as a covert operative for the Union army, organized massive espionage networks, successfully led 150 Union soldiers in a Union military operation, and did extensive work after the Civil War to help Blacks.