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Princeton Employment Law Blog

New Jersey court orders fee-shift in wrongful termination suit

Standing up and reporting wrongdoing in the workplace can be a cause of anxiety for some employees. They may worry that they will become the target of harassment or even lose their job for whistleblowing. But federal and New Jersey state laws are in place to protect workers from employer retaliation. And a recent New Jersey court case may provide an additional deterrent to prevent employers from wrongfully terminating employees.

The man who lost his job in the case was employed by the state of New Jersey in the Division of Consumer Affairs Office of Consumer Protection. He had been there 16 years and held the position of executive director. He reported a fellow employee for violating workplace practices. That fellow employee had political connections, and the man was fired in 2007.

Former Hoboken official sues for wrongful termination

It's not unusual for an employer to require ongoing training for employees on various topics throughout the year. Often these training sessions involve how to more effectively work with colleagues, safe work environments or appropriate communications in the office. However, what happens if a mandated training session time directly conflicts with important issues that your position is required to troubleshoot? What if missing the required training ends in you losing your job?

An ex-city official is trying to make a point to his former employer, the city of Hoboken, New Jersey. He has recently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit that names the city business administrator, the city mayor and several other city officials as defendants. If successful, the man who was once the construction code official for Hoboken, may have his job reinstated.

Young mother says her employee rights were violated due to wrongful termination

A young mother says her rights as an employee were violated after she was wrongly terminated by her employer for going on leave for her pregnancy. Certain workers have employee rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the federal law provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for parents with arriving newborns and provides the same amount of time to allow family members to take care of certain loved ones. In addition, the Family and Medical Leave Act protects the jobs of employees while on leave.

A 31-year-old senior program manager with a marketing company claims her former employer asked her to resign instead of allowing her to go on leave for her pregnancy. The company informed the mother-to-be that she was not entitled to leave under the FMLA because she had only worked for the company for four months instead of the requisite one year.

According to one pregnant worker advocate, many pregnant employees who ask for accommodations at work are asked to resign. The 31-year-old mother-to-be left a previous job for a position at the company, and when she informed two human resource executives of her pregnancy they told her she would have to resign because she had not been with the company for 12 months. One of the executives explained that whether she was a sick person or a pregnant woman who had not been with the company for a year she would be treated the same.

NLRB says that some arbitration agreements are outdated

Workers in Mercer County, New Jersey may want to pay attention: A new ruling by the National Labor Relations Board is now requiring all businesses to allow employees to bring collective claims in court or in arbitration, whichever way the employer chooses to provide. For those that signed away their rights to in-court disputes when becoming employed, this is great news.

It means that one of their important employee rights is still intact.

Major beverage company settles discrimination case with EEOC

Workers in Mercer County, New Jersey should pay attention to the results of a recent case against Pepsi Beverages Co. According to reports, the company was charged by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with racial discrimination. The company had been using criminal background checks to eliminate applicants who were not convicted of crimes.

Because of this policy, the company had "disproportionately" screened more than 300 African American individuals from receiving positions with the company. In most of the cases in question, arrest records were present, but convictions were not. Others were barred from employment because of minor offenses.

Employee rights poster enforcement date postponed

The enforcement of a controversial regulation passed by the National Labor Relations Board has been postponed by a federal court. This means that employers in Mercer County, New Jersey will not have to post a notice indicating employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act, a recently passed bill that ensures the rights of employees across the nation.

Companies both large and small would have been required to put up a poster created by the NLRB no later than Jan. 31, 2012. But a legal challenge to the requirement by the National Association of Manufacturers has forced the NLRB to push the enforcement date back to April 30 of next year. The three-month postponement should be enough time for the challenge to be settled. If the regulation holds up in court, it will help inform more of the workforce of its legal rights to perform certain actions.

New Jersey woman sues former employer for harassment

A complaint made by a woman from Lawnside, New Jersey, has been filed against the parent company of a former employer. She alleges that she was subjected to regular sexual harassment during the course of her employment, which began in spring of 2009 and ended last summer.

Her attorneys have filed a lawsuit against CBS Radio, Inc. for the alleged discrimination that she went through while employed as the director of marketing and communications at KYW Newsradio 1060. She says that her male coworkers at the station subjected her and several other employees to crude taunts, sexual innuendos, hostility and sexual touching.

Employers can be held liable for discrimination by employees

Though it may seem impossible for a New Jersey employer to keep track of every action performed by members of low-level management and the employees they supervise, they can still be held accountable for acts of wrongful termination. According to a decision made in 1990 by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, high-level decision makers can be held liable for acting upon a recommendation made by a low-level supervisor if discrimination is apparent in the recommendation.

This means that an employer should investigate the situation before acting upon such a recommendation.

New Jersey dockworker sexually harassed by foreman

The executive director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor says that women are the minority when it comes to working on the docks in New Jersey. Approximately 10 percent of deep sea longshoremen in New Jersey and New York are women and the inequalities that stem from this are apparent. According to some, women make 35 percent less on average than men in the industry. This is allegedly because of the types of equipment that men and women operate as well as the number of hours they can work.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that advancement for women in this industry may depend on how receptive they are to unwelcome sexual advances by their superiors. This statement came after a woman from Newark, New Jersey reported being touched by a foreman with Ports America. Her hours were cut soon after she reported the incident.

Public employee resigns in midst of harassment complaint

Earlier this year, the clerk of Haddon Heights, New Jersey filed a complaint against the incoming mayor. According to her, he had touched her inappropriately at least once and harassed her on several other occasions. The sexual harassment complaint was made to the borough council and it later became a civil rights complaint with the state. Both the borough council and the New Jersey Attorney General's office were investigating the allegations.

The situation was not made public until October. Adequate changes have not been made, according to the 32-year-old woman. Because of this, she recently tendered her resignation as borough clerk. Her last day will occur before the mayor-elect takes over and directly oversees her position. After making a statement regarding the news of her resignation, the mayor-elect officially denied the allegations made by the borough clerk for the first time.

New Jersey Family Law Employment Attorney Video

Contact Hanan M. Isaacs in Princeton, New Jersey for representation in family law, employment law and civil litigation matters. Call 866.959.3786 or visit http://www.hananisaacs.com

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