New Jersey Employee Rights Lawyers

Employment law is continually growing and evolving in an effort to keep pace with our changing society. However, despite all of our progress in the areas of civil rights, discrimination, and sexual harassment, problems and violations of the law still occur too frequently in today’s workplace environments.

At Aiello, Harris, Abate, our employment law work has become one of the busiest areas of our practice and one that is constantly presenting us with new challenges and opportunities to make a difference in the lives of our clients. We have considerable experience across the full spectrum of employment law issues and our NJ attorneys keep their skills sharp by remaining active members of the National Employment Lawyers Association.

Discrimination Law in New Jersey

Discrimination is the denial of employment, termination and / or alteration of the terms and conditions of employment (like wages and hours, bonuses, job assignments) based on a protected classification such as:

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1, et. seq. is one of the most aggressive anti-discrimination statutes in the country. The New Jersey Legislature enacted this statute for the specific purpose of “eradicating the cancer of discrimination in the workplace.”

Workplace discrimination can be direct or indirect, meaning it can be targeted at a single individual or a group of individuals. It is often shown by conduct and statements but can sometimes be demonstrated by statistics when a policy affects one class of people differently than others. Only employers / companies can be sued for discrimination, even if a supervisor or manager was the one that carried out the discrimination.

Harassment Law in New Jersey

Harassment can take many forms. Harassment is unwanted conduct of an unlawful nature. The law allows someone who is harassed to sue the harasser as well as the company/employer. When a supervisor, manager, or employer demands sex in return for a raise, continued employment, or promotion this is called quid pro quo sexual harassment.

Other forms of harassment include unwanted touching, jokes, exposure to images, statements, and/or other behavior directed at an employee because of their sex, race, disability, age, gender orientation, or some other protected status. If the conduct rises to a level where it is considered severe and pervasive (meaning it is either so severe or so common) that it affects the ability of someone to do their job, this is called a hostile environment. Cases of this type often involve joking, pin-up photographs of naked men or women, Internet pornography, racial slurs, etc.

Have you been the victim of wrongful termination in NJ?

In New Jersey, if you are wrongfully terminated for an unlawful reason, you may be entitled to recover damages. Our New Jersey employment lawyers have recovered millions of dollars for our clients who have been unlawfully terminated or retaliated against.

We fight hard for those who have been fired because of:

  • Race, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or some other protected classification discrimination
  • Opposition to activity or conduct that is unlawful or against public policy, commonly known as “whistleblowing”
  • Demanding overtime, rest breaks, or lunch breaks
  • Requesting an accommodation
  • Taking pregnancy leave
  • Taking family and/or medical leave
  • Refusal to enter an unsafe workplace
  • Political affiliation
  • Marital or family status
  • Refusing to sign an unlawful non-compete clause
  • Serving jury duty

Another form of wrongful termination is called a constructive wrongful termination. This is when the employee is not fired but quits because the conditions are so horrible and / or they have been effectively forced out or left no option. The law states that if conditions or treatment are so severe that a reasonable person could not consider continuing to work in the environment any further, then a person may quit and seek damages for their lost wages.

Employment contract issues

As you might already know, you should never sign anything without having an attorney review it first. You may be signing away important legal rights – and in the case of employment law, you risk being under-compensated and denied essential benefits.

Our New Jersey employment contract attorneys also help clients who suspect their employers of wrongdoing when it comes to:

We handle contract dispute issues, and seek to get any disputes resolved as soon as possible.

New Jersey employee rights lawyers with a proven track record of success

Our lawyers at Aiello Harris Abate Law Firm have successfully sued the largest Fortune 500 companies, as well as state, city, and county governments, in Somerset County and throughout New Jersey. We have also taken on smaller businesses and organizations that have allowed the laws to be broken. If you have been discriminated against or harassed, contact us online or call us today at (908) 561-5577 for a free case evaluation.