Discrimination

This article concludes the discussion of wide-ranging influence of a remarkable unsung hero, Larry DeCosta. The exploration of the life of this prodigious champion for those who could not speak up for themselves appears in Part II of this trilogy published February 26, 2019.

Champion of Equity and Fairness

Larry DeCosta, as Executive Director of Camden Regional Services, believed in equity and fairness. As an attorney he frequently would argue “equitable” principles as well as “legal” principles” to obtain relief for his clients, whether they be minimum wage hotel housekeepers or indigents. This was demonstrated in the landmark NJ Supreme Court case, Community Realty Management v.

Unsung hero Larry DeCosta was the quintessential legal champion of the poor without seeking publicity for his remarkable achievements. His soft-spoken and humble manner belied his toughness; he was strong, silent, and self-contained. His deep humility and southern gentility would frequently catch his legal adversaries off guard when they came up against Mr. DeCosta in a hotly contested matter.

Without missing a beat or changing his tone, he would intellectually eviscerate the legal arguments of his unsuspecting adversary attorneys.

Larry D. DeCosta, a black attorney from the South, was born on October 24, 1950 in Hampton, South Carolina to Thomas and Sue DeCosta. His soft-spoken and humble ways continued to comprise his professional demeanor as an attorney both in and out of court. He spoke fondly of his time growing up in South Carolina and would say that persons living in the Northern States had much to learn from the gentility of Southerners. Larry D.

While strides have been made for LGBTQ persons (lesbians and gays particularly with the passage of the 2015 Marriage Equality Act) a double standard exists in some workplaces that results in a less than friendly workplace for LGBTQ workers. This double standard results in a work environment where sexual orientation for LGBTQ employees is still sexualized as documented in a study earlier this year released by the Human rights Campaign.

Sexualizing Gay Employees and the Double Standard

While non-LGBTQ persons may regularly make light conversation or comments regarding their dating situation, they may not accept LGBTQ workers doing the same because they fear hearing about an LGBTQ person’s sex life. The same is true for LGBTQ workers who are married or in other long-term committed same-sex relationships.

Sexualizing LGBTQ persons also occurs when a co-worker or supervisor think they have a license to make sexually inappropriate jokes or comments because they wrongly believe that these comments are sanctioned because of the out-of-closet employee’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

Sometimes an employee believes another employee who is racist is “gunning to get them fired” even though the racist employee himself does not have the power to hire or fire employees.When a supervisor or manager who is not racist terminates a person, the terminated employee may wonder if he could ever have valid race discrimination claim. The terminated employee may have a valid

Many employees 80 years and older want to keep working. This is due to an economic necessity as well as a life-style choice. Employers need to recognize the changing demographics of this country and allow their employees age 85 and older to remain employed.

Persons frequently think of the generic class of seniors as those age 65 and older. Today, the most rapidly growing segment of the generic "senior" age group are persons in the more upper end of this senior age group, i.

If your employer is not treating you fairly because of your military service obligation, you should contact an experienced employment attorney because you have employment protections under federal law and New Jersey law. Those in the Armed Forces should be rewarded and not penalized for their service to this country.

Those in the Armed Forces or are serving or training in the Army National Guard and Air National Guard have rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). USERRA applies to all kinds of employers and requires employers to allow participation in military service by those who perform voluntary or involuntary duty in the uniformed services.

The “uniformed services” include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service Com.

A worker who is pregnant and experiences a negative change in her employer’s attitude after disclosing her pregnancy to the employer, is experiencing three types of discrimination- sex, disability and pregnancy discrimination - rolled into one bias. If you are pregnant, protections for you exist under numerous federal and state laws. If your employer failed to renew your annual contract or terminated you after you disclosed to your employer that you are pregnant, or if upon returning from a pregnancy leave, your employer did not hold your job for you, you may be eligible for back pay, front pay and damages.

Until the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) was amended to specifically include “pregnancy” as its own protected class, lawyers bringing claims under the NJLAD had to allege sex and/or disability discrimination, because pregnancy at that time was not its own distinct class requiring protections.

Male workers who requested time off or a reasonable accommodation for a disability due to a medical condition related to their reproductive systems,  were frequently allowed a reasonable accommodation or time off for medical leave to properly deal with their disability, while  pregnant women who requested an accommodation that will allow them to maintain a healthy pregnancy, or who needed a reasonable accommodation while recovering from childbirth, were either terminated, or not had their annual contract renewed or otherwise removed from their positions based on bogus reasons given by the employer.