You work hard, pay your dues, dedicate yourself to your job. Unfortunately, New Jersey employers don’t always play fairly in return. The good news is that you have rights under the law to protect yourself against illegal employment practices, such as job discrimination, a wage and hour dispute, or a wrongful termination. The Mashel Law Firm exclusively represents employees in disputes with their employers. Since 1999 we have been successfully taking on companies of all sizes to make sure our clients obtain what they are entitled to under New Jersey and federal laws. Money Disputes Employers in New Jersey do  [ Read More ]

by Piper Hoffman | Care2 Make a Difference #1. Discrimination laws protect white people, too The federal government recently issued reminders that the laws banning discrimination based on national origin and race protect Americans and whites as well as immigrants and minorities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated North Carolina printing company PBM Graphics and concluded that it had discriminated against non-Hispanics. That illegal conduct cost the company $334,000. The affected employees were all temporary workers. PBM had a staff of full-time regular workers, but because its workload fluctuated it also used temps. It didn’t need all of them all  [ Read More ]

The city of St. Paul denied Rasmusson’s invasion-of-privacy allegations and any liability for her claims, but said it agreed to settle in order “to avoid the uncertainties and costs associated with continued litigation of this matter.”A former police officer who filed invasion of privacy suits after fellow cops illegally accessed her driver’s license record more than 400 times just to get a peek at her, will receive more than $1 million in compensation according to settlements reached in several of the suits. The Minneapolis City Council has agreed to pay Anne Marie Rasmusson $392,000, on top of a $280,000 settlement  [ Read More ]

Every October, we bring special awareness to an issue that plagues our communities, our families and even our workplaces—domestic violence against women. For more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) in this country, the impact of domestic violence is felt by more than just the victim. Ending this devastating reality has been a priority for the Administration.  During his first year in office, Vice President Biden announced longtime advocate Lynn Rosenthal as White House Advisor on Violence Against Women—a newly created position. And President Obama called on the executive heads of federal agencies (as leaders and model employers) to establish policies  [ Read More ]

Topic: Employment Background Checks and the EEOC The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the “Commission”) approved, by a 4-1 vote, a revised Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the “Guidance”). This law has already gone into effect. The revised guidance reflects the EEOC’s long-held position that employers’ reliance on arrest and conviction records may have a disparate impact on individuals because of their race or national origin. Before disqualifying an individual with a criminal record from employment, the Commission emphasizes, employers should engage in  [ Read More ]

Diversity I Sexual Harassment The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, compensation and the terms, conditions and privileges of employment on the basis of any of the law’s specified protected categories. These protected categories are: race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information liability for military service, or mental or physical disability, including AIDS and HIV  [ Read More ]

Employment Discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. There is also a growing body of law preventing or occasionally justifying employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, and various types of harassment. The main body of employment discrimination laws is composed of federal and state statutes. The United States Constitution and some state constitutions provide additional protection where the employer is a governmental body or the government has taken significant steps to foster the discriminatory practice of the  [ Read More ]

Effective July 1, 2012, Vermont will be the eighth state to regulate the use of credit-related information for employment purposes. Although similar in many ways to laws already enacted in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon and Washington, Vermont’s requirements under Act No. 154 exceed those of other state laws as they prohibit even exempt employers from using an applicant or employee’s credit history as the “sole factor” in employment decisions. Additionally, Vermont exempt employers who take adverse action based in part on a credit history must return the report to the individual or destroy it altogether. Neither the Fair  [ Read More ]

Posted by Jay S. Becker There has been a lot of discussion lately regarding an employer’s right to know as much as possible about an applicant, as opposed to that applicant’s right to privacy. Should an employer be limited by what is contained on an applicant’s self-serving resume or application, and/or what the applicant decides to share during an interview, or should an employer have a right to learn more about the applicant, by demanding the applicant’s password to his/her social media sites? When does an employer’s right to know versus an applicant’s right to privacy begin and end? If  [ Read More ]

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, compensation and the terms, conditions and privileges of employment on the basis of any of the law’s specified protected categories. These protected categories are: race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information liability for military service, or mental or physical disability, including AIDS and HIV related illnesses. The LAD  [ Read More ]

On March 26, 2012 I posted a blog cautioning employers from requesting social media password, most notably, Facebook. That practice may be short-lived as legislation has been introduced in both Houses of the United States Congress making unlawful for employers or schools to require employees, students and/or candidates to provide social media password. Although several states introduced legislation in March and April of 2012, the proposed legislation may impact employers and its employees throughout the country. Bill H.R. 5050 was introduced by House Representative Eliot Engel on April 27, 2012 and is titled Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA). The  [ Read More ]

By David Schepp | Aol Jobs. If you’ve ignored career experts’ advice to be careful about what you post on social networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn, this new survey may frighten you. In a survey of some 2,300 hiring managers, nearly 40 percent said they screen potential hires using social media, and many say they reject job applicants as a result of what they find, according to a new survey released Wednesday by CareerBuilder. Hiring Now Search All Job Listings New York Jobs Los Angeles Jobs Chicago Jobs Philadelphia Jobs Nearly a third of hiring managers who currently research candidates  [ Read More ]

Why Congress and the States Should Prohibit This Practice Have you ever gone to a job interview and had a prospective employer ask to see letters you’ve written to friends or family members, or your family photo albums? Have prospective employers asked for the key to your apartment so that they can snoop around? The answer to these questions should, of course, be “No.” Yet, as the Associated Press reported last week, employers—both public and private—are increasingly asking job applicants to do the equivalent, by turning over their Facebook user IDs and passwords as part of the interview process. This  [ Read More ]

Diversity | Sexual Harassment The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, compensation and the terms, conditions and privileges of employment on the basis of any of the law’s specified protected categories. These protected categories are: race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information liability for military service, or mental or physical disability, including AIDS and HIV  [ Read More ]

Employment Discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. A growing body of law also seeks to prevent employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, retaliation, and various types of harassment. The main body of employment discrimination laws consists of federal and state statutes. The United States Constitution and some state constitutions provide additional protection when the employer is a governmental body or the government has taken significant steps to foster the discriminatory practice of the employer. The Fifth  [ Read More ]