Practice Areas

The New York Human Rights Law, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 make it unlawful to discriminate against a person in employment because of that person’s race or color. Discrimination can take the form of harassment including racial slurs, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s race or color, or the display of racially offensive symbols. Generally, these laws do not prohibit isolated incidents that are not very serious; harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision. The harasser need not be an employee’s boss. He or she can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer. If you are a victim of discrimination based on race or an employer who is concerned about minimizing exposure or defending a race discrimination lawsuit, we have experience in litigating race discrimination claims.

The New York State Human Rights Law, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protect employees over the age of 40 from age discrimination. The ADEA, which applies to employers, labor organizations, and employment agencies, makes it unlawful for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual concerning his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s age.” The statute protects certain applicants and employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination based on age in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, or terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. It not only applies to hiring, discharge, and promotion but also prohibits discrimination in employee benefit plans such as health coverage and pensions and applies to employers who have “twenty or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.”

Replacing Older Workers
It is illegal to replace a person over 40 with a person under 40 if age is the reason. It is also illegal to replace a person over forty with a younger person who is also forty.

Older Worker’s Benefit Protection Act
The Older Worker’s Benefit Protection Act provides protection of benefits or benefit packages for older workers. According to the act, an employer must provide equal benefits for older workers as they do for their younger counterparts. An employer can accomplish this by either providing packages that are equal in benefit or by spending the same amount of money on each person. An individual cannot waive his right under this act unless that waiver is knowing and voluntary.

The New York Human Rights Law and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination prohibit employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, and compensation. Gender or sex discrimination happens when an employer treats an employee unequally based on his or her gender alone. While there may be certain business reasons to permit an employer to hire a man or a woman based on a bona fide business need, an employer cannot make employment decisions based on gender stereotypes and other assumptions about men and women.

Sex discrimination may include discrimination on the basis of pregnancy (or perception of potential pregnancy), sexual harassment, and a hostile work environment because of an employee’s sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation. Sex discrimination, like other forms of employment discrimination, sometimes takes the form of “reverse discrimination.” If you believe you have been discriminated against because of your gender and as a consequence your job or job conditions have been adversely affected and would like to discuss whether you have a viable legal claim, please call us for a consultation.

The New York Human Rights Law, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 2964 protect employees from discrimination on the basis of their religious beliefs. Religion in the employment setting includes not only established religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism but also sincerely held religious, ethical, or moral beliefs. Employers are not allowed to discriminate based on religion, which means that employers cannot refuse to hire, deny promotions, fire people, or, take other adverse employment actions that are driven by animosity towards an individual’s religion.

Title VII prohibits workplace or job segregation based on religion (including religious garb and grooming practices), such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or feared customer preference.

Employers are required to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer’s business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion. Accommodation issues often arise with scheduling around particular religious observances.

Examples of some common religious accommodations include flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications to workplace policies or practices. Under the federal Civil Rights Act, an undue hardship for purposes of accommodation is interpreted to mean anything that has more than a minimal cost to the employer.

If your employer discriminates against you because of your religion or refuses to provide you with reasonable accommodation of your religious beliefs, please contact us to determine whether you have a legal claim.

Under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, the New York Human Rights Law, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, or the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, an employer is prohibited from treating a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant unfavorably because she has a disability. The definition of a disability is important and is somewhat differently defined in by each of these 3 laws.

Many aspects of employment are protected from age discrimination, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment. The law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee or job applicant with a disability unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense for the employer.

Reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment (or in the way things are usually done) to help a person with a disability apply for a job, perform the duties of a job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment. If you feel you are a victim of disability discrimination, or if you feel you have been denied a request for a reasonable accommodation, please contact our office, as we have experience in the area of reasonable accommodations and litigation premised on violations of the laws prohibiting disability discrimination.

In both New Jersey and New York State, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because they are pregnant. This means that employers cannot fire, demote, or refuse to hire someone simply because they are expecting a child. Additionally, pregnant individuals are entitled to reasonable accommodations in the workplace, such as modified work duties or additional breaks. These laws are in place to protect the rights of pregnant individuals and ensure that they are treated fairly and equitably in the workplace. Discrimination based on pregnancy is a violation of civil rights laws in both states and can result in legal consequences for employers who engage in such behavior.

The Family and Medical Leave Act 1993 (FMLA) was created as a way of providing employees with a means of coping with the challenging demands of family and home. It applies to companies with 50 employees or more in one location, or 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. It helps workers who, for personal reasons, may require time off. It allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, and the employee at the end of that period is entitled to return to the same or similar position that they were in before they left. The FMLA includes coverage of the following situations:

• The birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
• The placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
• The serious health condition of the employee’s spouse, child, or parent;
• The employee’s serious health condition; or
• Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty.”

The requirements of the FMLA apply to both male and female employees. The benefits of the FMLA are available to employees who have been working for an employer for at least 12 months and who have provided at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12 months before the leave is requested. An employer may first require an employee to use his or her paid vacation, personal, or sick leave for any part of the twelve weeks. An employee who returns to work following a twelve-week FMLA leave must be returned either to the same position or to an equivalent position in terms of pay, benefits, and other conditions of employment. The FMLA does provide a limited exception for employees in the highest-paying 10% of that particular employer’s workforce if reinstating those workers would cause “substantial and grievous economic injury” to the employer’s business.

New Jersey and New York statutes do not expressly permit a claim for a hostile work environment, although a hostile work environment can be a cause of a constructive termination. The term “hostile work environment,” as it is regularly used in employment law in New York and New Jersey discrimination to mean offensive conduct directed at employees because of their membership in a protected class of individuals (for example, a class based on race, religion, or disability).