Many companies require employees to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of getting hired or keeping their jobs. Arbitration agreements are often included in employment contracts, but they also can be in separate agreements. Arbitration is when a case is decided by one or more professional arbitrators, rather than by…
The Sexual Harassment Last week, the New Jersey Appellate Division clarified what a company must prove before its anti-harassment policy can protect it from a sexual harassment claim. The case, Allen v. Adecco, involves Jessica Allen, an employee who worked for the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey…
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to allow employees to observe their sincerely held religious practices and observances, unless the company cannot accommodate the employee without causing an undue hardship to its business. Last month, New Jersey’s Appellate Division reversed a trial court’s decision…
Starting on January 1, 2011, New York employees in the Hotel and Restaurant Industries have new rights and legal protections under New York’s Hospitality Wage Order. While there are numerous changes to the law, the following describes some of the more noteworthy changes. Changes to Minimum Wage The new law…
On December 13, 2010, New York State Governor David A. Paterson signed the Wage Theft Prevention Act (“WTPA”) into law. The WTPA is intended to help protect employees working in New York against violations of their wage and hour law rights. The WTPA requires employers to provide information to employees…
The statute of limitations under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) is two years. Ordinarily, that means you must file your lawsuit within two years after (1) a “discrete act” of discrimination such as being fired, demoted, or suspended, or (2) the last act of a pattern of harassment.…
As an employment lawyer, I am often asked whether an employee can take copies of documents from their job to help prove discrimination or retaliation. There is no simple answer to that question. Rather, as the New Jersey Supreme Court recognized last week in Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the answer…
Last week, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that each day an employee is paid a lower salary based on a past unlawful discriminatory decision is a separate violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD). As a result, three tenured Seton Hall University professors can proceed with their…
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently sued the Port Authority of NY & NJ, claiming the Port Authority violated the Equal Pay Act (“EPA”) by paying non-supervisory female lawyers less than their male counterparts. The EPA is a federal law that prohibits employers from considering gender as…
On November 10, 2010, New Jersey’s Appellate Division ruled that a civil service employee can bring a lawsuit alleging that discipline against him was retaliatory even if he did not appeal a Civil Service Commission decision upholding the discipline. In Racanelli v. County of Passaic, James Racanelli sued the County…