Employment

Sweeping Amendments to NJ WARN Act, § 34:21-1 et seq., went into effect on April 10, 2023. These Amendments increase the economic benefits to employees terminated in mass layoffs. In 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed these sweeping amendments into law.

Many older workers who are being pushed out of their job or not being promoted feel it is because of their age, but they wonder if they have any evidence to prove age discrimination, particularly if they were hired when they were hired in their 50's or 60's. If you are a worker who is experiencing age discrimination, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. I accept clients from all over NJ. I have represented older employees who were pushed out of jobs because of their age and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages.

What is Relevant Evidence If I Was Hired When Older Than 50?

One of the first rules of evidence to prove age discrimination, or any kind of discrimination, is that it must be “Relevant Evidence”.

The US Supreme Court held earlier this year that certain highly compensated workers making over $200,000 a year, whose employers characterized them as being salaried employees, may still be entitled to overtime pay.

Some employers are cheating their employees out of legal wages by claiming the workers are so highly compensated for their labor and paid by a salary, that the overtime pay legal regulations automatically do not apply to them. As a result, some workers who work grueling exorbitant, and frequently unsafe, hours are paid substandard wages. Congress enacted the Fair labor Standards Act (FLSA) to eliminate both “substandard wages” and “oppressive working hours”. If you think your employer is depriving you of overtime hourly payment, you should contact this office for a free consultation.

Police officers may choose their profession for numerous idealist reasons, i.e., protect people from harm, facilitate order, and upholding the law. One thing that did not motivate them in choosing this profession was the prospect of being treated as human cash registers and money generating machines for financially strapped municipalities and public entities. Yet, too often, police officers are seen and utilized as a free fund-raising opportunity by towns who are cash-strapped.

In today’s NJ workplace, illegal pregnancy discrimination is all too common against female executives, middle, and lowered tiered employees across all industries. Unlike other types of discrimination such as race and ethnicity, it is rarely directly or overtly hostile but is frequently annoyingly insensitive at best and results in the worker being severed from her job at worst. The majority of employers are aware that pregnancy discrimination is illegal and take measures to mask their discriminatory actions fearing legal action by the employee.

If you are an employee at any level whose employer is not providing reasonable accommodations for your pregnancy or related medical condition, and the terms and conditions of your employment have changed, or your contract was not renewed, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. I am experienced and successful in recovering moneys as a result of pregnancy discrimination for lost wages, both past lost wages and projected future lost wages, and for recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering.

Many Black employees are still experiencing race discrimination, racial harassment and retaliation in today’s New Jersey workplace. It can be a failure to promote, or receiving less money for doing the same job that employees of other races receive for essentially the same work, outright wage theft, being subjected to racial harassment, and personally being called, or having your race be referred to, by extreme racist slurs and racist epithets, including use of the n-word.

Many erroneously assume the times of using racist slurs in the NJ workplace are past. They are wrong. Severe racist name calling is still far too common in some NJ workplaces.

Many long-term employees who have renewable annual contracts may go along seamlessly until they become an older member in the workplace. Then unexpectedly, the employer alleges some bogus reason to not renew the contract, when the real reason is age discrimination. Courts analyze the non-renewal of a contract similarly to a termination. If the Court were to determine that such a termination constitutes illegal discrimination, then so would the non-renewal of a contract.

If your employer is not renewing your contract, and you think your age may be the real reason, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.

The most experienced and qualified IT specialists should not have to fear being fired due to their age.  IT workers are all too frequently forced out of jobs and replaced by younger, though not more qualified, workers. The younger IT replacement workers frequently have a starting salary that exceeds that of the older long-term workers whom they replaced.

If you are an IT worker who is being forced out of your job, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.

I have represented IT workers and older employees who were pushed out of jobs because of their age and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages.

If you are a pregnant worker requiring an accommodation for your pregnancy, you will have further protection from discrimination under a new law to go into effect later this month. Covered employers cannot make you take leave of absence if a reasonable accommodation for your pregnancy is available. President Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) on December 29, 2022, as part of an appropriations bill. Pregnant workers now gain further rights for pregnancy accommodations under a new federal law which goes into effect on June 27, 2023. You may read the text of bill here.

The New Jersey Sales Representatives’ Rights Act (NJSRRA)

If you think you are being cheated out of your sales commissions, you should contact this office today for a free consultation. A little-known statute, the NJ Sales Representatives Rights Act (NJSRRA) gives independently commissioned sales representatives important legal protections. These protections extend to after the end date of the contract. Violations of Section 2 of the Act entitle the sales representative to enhanced compensation in the amount of treble damages plus all reimbursement of all attorney fees and costs incurred in recovering the debt owed.

Sales representatives compensated by earned commissions paid by the principal with whom they have a contract, have impasses that only those standing in their shoes could begin to comprehend.