If you have notified your employer of your disability and are then terminated, your employer may be obligated to engage in an interactive dialogue to determine if they can accommodate you even after you are terminated. Put plainly, employers can be held liable for failing to accommodate an employee even…
On September 24, 2021, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law Legislative Bill A-2617/S-2998 requiring employers with at least 50 employees to provide a hiring preference to an employee injured in a work-related injury who has reached maximum medical improvement and cannot return to the employee’s former position with that employer (hereafter the…
An employer’s leaking of an employee’s confidential medical information may give rise to a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d). “The purpose of the ADA is to ‘invoke the sweep of Congressional authority . . . in order to address the major areas of…
Under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD), when an employee suffers injury due to their employer’s failure to accommodate his or her disability, the employer is liable for discrimination under LAD even when no direct economic harm or other form of adverse employment action was taken by the employer against…
Although there is no bright-line rule as to what constitutes an adverse employment action, New Jersey state and federal courts have held that actions causing direct economic harm (such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, or adjusting wages or benefits) qualify as adverse actions sufficient to support a prima facie case of…
Federal and state disability discrimination laws do not currently address whether COVID-19 is a covered disability under their respective statutory schemes. However, given the liberality by which New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A., 10:5-1, et. seq. (the “LAD”) is to be applied and considering the recent enactment of a New…
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) protects physically and mentally disabled employees from discrimination. Under the ADA, employers who fail to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities may be found liable for discrimination. See Colwell v. Rite Aid Corp., 602 F.3d 495, 504-05 (3d Cir. 2010). As a…
The Appellate Division recently held that in enacting the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD), the Legislature intended the Act to be construed as broad enough to extend to certain nonresidents who sought employment in the State. Calabotta v. Phibro Animal Health Corp., N.J. Super. LEXIS 100 (June 27, 2019).…
Under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) employees may now be able to pursue a failure to accommodate disability discrimination claim even if they do not suffer an adverse employment action for having requested such an accommodation. Put differently, a worker may sue their employer under New Jersey state…
The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey published an opinion on May 20, 2019, in which it reversed an Atlantic County decision dismissing a Law Against Discrimination (LAD) claim brought by a group of employees against the Borgata Casino, Hotel, and Spa in Atlantic City. The employees,…