Employment Discrimination

Employment Discrimination Overview – New Jersey and New York Employment Law Attorneys

Are You the Victim of Workplace Discrimination?

Our experienced employment discrimination attorneys serving New Jersey and New York provide strong legal representation to employees who have experienced unlawful discrimination in the workplace. Employment discrimination is illegal and should not be tolerated, even by “at will” employees. Indeed, under both state and federal law, employees have a statutory right to sue and recover damages for employment discrimination and wrongful termination, whether they are “at will” employees or not. Even though the general rule of “at will” employment is that an employee may be fired for any or no reason, with or without notice, the anti-discrimination statutes provide one of the exceptions to that general rule. The relevant statutes for New Jersey and New York employees are the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, the New York Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Equal Pay Act, among others.

Discrimination is actionable only if it is based on your membership in a legally protected category, such as race, age, gender, pregnancy, mental or physical disability, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or veteran or military status. If you have experienced any of the following based on your membership in an above-mentioned group, you may have a discrimination claim:

• You were fired, laid off, or otherwise wrongfully discharged
• Your position was eliminated in a reduction in force
• You were demoted
• You were not hired
• You are underpaid compared to your peers
• You were harassed
• You were forced to resign (also referred to as a “constructive discharge”)
• You were denied a reasonable accommodation for a mental or physical disability
• You experienced another adverse employment action

Unfortunately, employers are not legally required to treat their employees fairly. For example, it is not necessarily unlawful if an employer makes an employment decision based on favoritism, nepotism, friendship, or “office politics.” Unfair treatment is only legally actionable discrimination if it is due to your race, age, gender, pregnancy, mental or physical disability, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or another legally prohibited reason. Similarly, harassment — which is a form of discrimination — must be based on membership in a legally protected category in order to be actionable.

Courts have stated that the purpose of employment discrimination statutes is to eradicate the cancer of discrimination in the workplace. We, at the Resnick Law Group, are committed to helping our clients do exactly that. Indeed, we have chosen employment law as our concentration, since we believe employees require powerful representation to equalize the competing interests of their employers, and to otherwise deliver justice to our clients who have been wronged.

If you have been the victim of any of the following forms of workplace discrimination in New York or New Jersey, contact one of our experienced employment discrimination lawyers: