Employment

Recent news reporting of police brutality has resulted in many persons having a heightened interest in Federal Law regarding abuses by persons acting under color of state law, particularly in regards to racial bias, following George Floyd’s death on May 25th, a black man who died in police custody following a brutal police assault that was captured in a bystander video which went viral. The deprivation of rights by police officers is prohibited in many state statutes and in the Federal Statute, 42 USCS § 1983. When a person is acting in an official government capacity, such as a police officer, he is acting under “color of state law.” A police officer does not have to be on the clock or in uniform to be acting under  “color of state law.” If off-duty police officers flash their badge to represent they are acting within the scope of their police authority, their acts may still be covered under 42 USCS § 1983.

Sad but true, some NJ employers still skirt labor laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act to avoid paying overtime. However, there are stiff penalties for employers who do so. See NJ Employees and Wage Theft Act- NJ Wage Payment Law Amendments.

Certain employers will have a blanket rule as to no-overtime-pay-for-anyone, even when the staff regularly works over 40 hours in a workweek.

In some workplaces,  an employer may only fail to pay overtime based on illegal discriminatory reasons, such as not paying it to women or to persons of a certain race.

U.S. Supreme Court on July 8, 2020, upheld the employer’s religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) contraceptive mandate, in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter & Paul Home v. Pennsylvania. Under the ACA’s contraceptive mandate, most employers are required by law to provide health insurance to employees that includes coverage for certain types of contraceptives.

On July 8, the US Supreme Court in Our Lady of Guadalupe Sch. v. Morrissey-Berru ruled that religious employers are given wide latitude as to religious exemptions for their employees, which exempted employees are thereby prohibited from filing discrimination claims under federal law. The Court’s holding means that the “ministerial exemption” applies to a much broader group of employees than just ordained ministers or formally titled religious leaders.

Listen to US Supreme Court oral arguments in in Our Lady of Guadalupe Sch.

There have been hundreds of protests against systemic racism and police brutality in New Jersey in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25^th, a black man who died in police custody in Minnesota following a brutal police assault that was captured in a bystander video which went viral. George Floyd's death as well as countless other deaths of blacks, do not exist in a time vacuum, as historical racism against blacks continues through the centuries globally. Persons around the world are participating in demonstrations against racism sparked by the death of George Floyd.

To date, the rapid response of NJ residents in organized marches in response to the murder of George Floyd is almost too large to tally as they continue. Ordinary citizens who had not been civil rights activists before, assumed successful leadership roles in organizing marches and protests to combat systemic racism.

New Jersey employees were protected from gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in employment prior to the recent landmark ruling of the US Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination protects against all forms of sex discrimination in employment including gender identity and sexual orientation. Not all statutes in others states provided such protection. 

Prior to the U.

The 1964 Freedom Summer was due in large part to the initiative and efforts of James Leonard Farmer, Jr., though many have not heard of his name. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) leaders previously hired Farmer as its National Director in 1961. As the civil rights movement gained a foothold, Farmer’s immediate priority was to increase public awareness of the goals of CORE, an organization with its then current main presence in Northern states, through organizing a direct action campaign in the Southern states for fundraising and to garner public interest and support. As discussed in prior article, under his leadership, interracial volunteers began a bus trip through the South to test Supreme Court decisions prohibiting segregation in interstate transportation.

James Farmer dedicated his life to the advancement of civil rights for blacks. He was one of the Founders of the Congress for Racial Equality, CORE, in 1942 and is considered one of the most influential of the civil rights leaders of the 1960's along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Chief of NAACP, and Whitney Young. He was born in 1920 and died in 1999 at age of 79.

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/S4500/4204_I1.

New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), N.J.S.A. §§ 34:19-1 to -8, defines an "employee" as any individual who performs services for and under the control and direction of an employer for wages or other remuneration.