Employment

The Federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (FLA) are very similar in that qualified employees working for employers who are covered under the Acts, are allowed time off work in order take care of Certain family members. In some situations, the leaves are for the same purpose and therefore run concurrently. However, in other situations the employees would be entitled to take separate leaves.

To maximize your amount of leave, if you are a New Jersey employee, you should combine entitlements under both the FLA and FMLA where allowed.

The main difference is that the FMLA allows a qualified employee who is working for an employer covered the FMLA to take time off work because of the employee’s own disability or medical condition which renders him/her temporarily unable to do their job, while the FLA does not.

Some businesses and public entities incorrectly assume that the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) gives age protection only to those workers under 70 years of age. This is because of a clause (frequently misinterpreted by employers to further their own interests) in the LAD stating that nothing in the statute shall be construed to prohibit an employer  from refusing to accept for employment any person over 70 years of age. This clause, as interpreted by the NJ Supreme Court is meant to narrowly apply only to brand new hires, not long term employees who must get their contracts renewed every year and have a pre-existing relationship with the employer.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has held allowing employers to not hire back to work a person over 70 after their contract had expired, would have restricted the intent of the LAD and been contrary to law.  Frequently public employees and private employees have a contract to be renewed every year.

In today’s economy, most women who are pregnant and work cannot not afford to lose their job. They may need the employer to allow reasonable accommodations or adjustments to their work to allow them to keep safely working while pregnant. In New Jersey, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and goes a step further than some other laws to protect women who are pregnant, have given birth or suffer a related medical condition. A pregnant employee in New Jersey has the right to ask for a broad range of reasonable accommodations to allow her to keep working.

Under the NJLAD, it is prohibited for an employer to treat a woman employee that the employer knows, or should know, is affected by pregnancy in a manner less favorable than the treatment of other employees not affected by pregnancy but who are similar in their ability or inability to work.

On February 21, 2018, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in a case, Digital Realty Trust Inc. v. Somers, that gives a restrictive interpretation of “whistleblower" in certain instances under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Dodd-Frank Act established a new whistleblower program in 2010. This program encourages persons to provide information relating to a violation of U.

Age discrimination persists as a pervasive and serious problem in the workplace. What some persons consider to be “age appropriateness” is the result of a social construct that is forever changing. Unfortunately, many employers have not caught up with the fact that age is not a factor that should be negatively held against employees in terms of evaluating qualifications to maintain their position. As long as an employee can fulfill their job tasks, their age cannot make them otherwise unqualified or less qualified for their position. There are 72 year olds outperforming 32 year olds all of the time in many occupations.