Disability Discrimination

New Jersey employers may require employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in order to enter the physical workplace according to policy issued on NJ State Government website. The EEOC issued a press release last week with a similar stance, that Federal laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, so long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

An exception to a mandatory vaccine policy may be when an employee has been advised by their medical doctor not to get the COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding. Other possible exceptions are when an employee has a disability that prevents them from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, or has a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance that precludes them from getting vaccinated, i.e.

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.

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.

Many employees at some point become unhappy with their work situation and feel “fed up” with their work environment. Sometimes they believe that their boss is pressuring them to resign.  They may need time to secure another position with a different employer but are concerned about the lack of income during the period after they quit and before they secure new employment.

If you are unhappy in your job and thinking about resigning, you should contact an experienced employment law attorney before you do so. If you think your employer is forcing you out, pressuring you to quit, discriminating against you, harassing you, or illegally retaliating against you, you can contact this law office now for a free consultation.

NJ employees who are disabled sometimes hit stone walls when they ask their employer for a disability accommodation that will allow them to keep working.   Some employers either deliberately or unknowingly do not understand the law and the standards to be applied.

First, in New Jersey, all employers, public and private, under the NJ Law Against Discrimination (LAD) are required by law to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee’s disability to allow them to keep working. This is true whether the disability is temporary or permanent. These cases frequently turn on what is considerable to be “reasonable” accommodation standards for an employee’s disability accommodation.

Employees in New Jersey and elsewhere may feel nervous about retiring in their 60's, even when they had previously planned retiring by age 65 or 66 when they were younger workers. Increased costs of living and shrinking pension benefits may be part of the cause of the nervousness for their wanting to extend their retirement age, but anxiety regarding the decision as to the best age to retire can be exacerbated if they perceive they are being pushed out of the workforce by their employer, that their self-determination of when they will choose retire is being taken away from them.

First, employees in NJ should know that in NJ, it is illegal for an employer to fire someone because of their age - even if they are “senior” citizen workers in their 70's and 80's etc. (I personally don’t care for that phrase- “senior citizens” - it’s unfortunately loaded with far too many negative connotations. Hoping that mainstream culture substitutes “venerable” or that something similar will eventually replace it.

While Boards of Education have the right to choose which non-tenured teachers will have their contracts renewed and which they refuse to renew, the refusal cannot be based on illegal reasons. Motherhood is foremost for the continuation of the species! Pregnant women should be protected and supported, not discriminated against! As explained in 

Pregnant teachers in NJ are subject to the same anti-discrimination laws as are employees in other professions and this is true even when the pregnant teacher is non-tenured. Motherhood is foremost for the continuation of the species! Pregnant women should be protected and supported, not discriminated against!  I have successfully represented pregnant, non-tenured teachers whose contacts were not renewed and succeeded in recovering money for them.

Boards of Education have the right to decide which non-tenured employees’ contracts will be renewed and which will not be renewed. However, a decision to not renew cannot be based on an illegal reason. Pregnancy is a defined protected class pursuant to the New Jersey Pregnant Worker's Fairness Act (PWFA).