Employment

Terminated employees often have come to me when their boss terminated them without giving them any reason as to what they did wrong. When this happens, a detailed inquiry is necessary, going back even several years, to determine if the firing was legal or illegal. 

Generally, when a person has a written employment contract, it may stipulate that the employee can only be fired if they did some Certain act or acts ( such as repeated tardiness, etc.) and if the employee does engage in such act, the employer may terminate the employee “ for cause”. But if the employee does not engage in the acts or otherwise violate the contract provisions that trigger the “for cause” termination, the employee’s job is generally secure, absent some illegal act by employee or other bone fide business justification.

A recent case is testing the limits of pregnancy and sex discrimination laws as a woman who opted to use a surrogate to give birth to twins has filed a discrimination suit against her employer for not allowing her to take time off under its paid maternity leave policy and discrimination based on sex, disability and pregnancy. Under the employer’s policy, women who give birth or adopt children are offered six to eight weeks of paid leave. However, the company required her to use vacation and sick days when her children were born. The Plaintiff in this matter originally  filed the suit in U.S.

On Friday, January 13, 2017, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over whether the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is violated when employer arbitration policies prohibit employees from filing class or collective actions. The Court granted cert and consolidated three petitions: Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, a California case; Epic Systems v. Lewis, an appeal from a District Court for the Western of Wisconsin; and Murphy Oil USA v. National Labor Relations Board, which had been appealed in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The evolution of discrimination law in New Jersey that protects the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender persons in their places of employment, put employers on notice they could be held liable if they allow discrimination or harassment of LGBT persons. Another evolution in the law that additionally made employers more cognizant, albeit in a more general manner, of the rights of equality for gays and lesbians, was the legalization of same sex marriages. The discrimination of LGBT persons in the workplace has not gone away however; it has just now appears in forms more subtle, as is driven underground in the ranks of management in attempts to evade liability.

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If you are fired or discriminated against at work for being overweight or underweight, whether or not your employer is violating the law depends on whether the employer is applying standards that illegally discriminate against a class of employees that is protected by law, such as based on sex, disability, pregnancy, etc. Persons who are dangerously overweight, i.e., morbidly obese, and those underweight who have anorexia have a disability that gives them a protected status. If you are such a person and are being discriminated against, you should not sit on your rights.

It comes as little surprise to many,  that employers often hand out their pink slips at the end of December. While this may seem to be emotionally the worst time of year to inform workers that they no longer have a job, it does not make it any more illegal than at any other time. It is only significant if employer applies an illegal basis, such as age,  when choosing which employees will be let go and which will remain. Age must be a bona fide occupational qualification for an employer to have a rule mandating retirement at a specified age.

If you are an older employee and the year-end pink slips were disproportionally given to the older workers such as yourself, the employer might be illegally discriminating.

Cancer survivors and those in treatment are entitled to reasonable accommodations at their workplace to allow them to remain employed. Cancer survivors and those in treatment should not have to suffer discrimination at work and numerous state and federal laws prohibit discrimination against an employee who had or has cancer, or are perceived as having cancer.

This firm has successfully represented cancer survivors, both private and  public employees. To persons diagnosed with cancer, treating for it, or having survived it and returned to work, don’t give up! The law is on your side for an employer to make reasonable accommodations that will allow you to remain employed. 

Reasonable Accommodations to Remain Employed

An employee who has cancer should request a reasonable accommodation from their employer that will allow them to remain employed if that accommodation is necessary.

A sexual harasser in the workplace ( and elsewhere) may make statements such as, “You are too sensitive,” or “You are being too PC, ” in order to deflect blame off of  himself  or herself for the sexual harassing acts.

While the law in NJ doesn't prohibit simple teasing, or single incidents that are not very serious, or offhand non-threatening comments, acts may be illegal harassment when they are so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment. A single incident, if sufficiently severe, may be enough to prove a valid claim. If the harrasser’s sexual advances are rebuffed by the employee,  and such rejection or snub results in an adverse employment decision, such as the employee being fired or demoted, there could also be a valid claim. The advances do not have to be tangibly sexual in nature to suffice such a claim.

As reported in the press and according US government statistics, the filing of Pregnancy Discrimination claims are on the rise. Some may like to believe that public school teachers may be immune to this type of discrimination, as they are dedicated to caring for children, but such is not the case. This Law Office has litigated these types of pregnancy cases, both in Federal and State Court and obtained successful monetary results for clients.

The fight to end discrimination against women in the workplace in New Jersey is far from over, and women who plan to have children or become pregnant remain vulnerable. A recent case out of Asbury Park illustrates how pregnancy discrimination is still a problem.

NJ State and Federal law prohibit discrimination against an employee because of the employee’s associations with a disabled person. An employer may not discriminate against you because of your association with a disabled person, or a person who is merely perceived to be disabled, if not in fact disabled. This protection applies not only to permanent and full-time employees but also to part-time and temporary workers. 

The disabled person need not be a relative of the employee; he/she could be a roommate, a friend or other associate. This protected category is known as associational disability discrimination.

As stated earlier on this site, if you work for a private employer you may not sue your employer for violating your free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ( not to be confused with individual state constitutions) which establishes limits only on the government’s infringement of speech rights but not on a private employer’s curtailing of speech of its employees.

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