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…
Good news for New Jersey workers! New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy enacted amendments to the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law, effective August 6, 2019, and New Jersey Family Leave Insurance (FLI), effective July 1, 2020, and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development recently offered extended benefits…
Protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd put a spotlight on the legal doctrine of qualified immunity. To successfully sue a police officer for excessive or abusive conduct, or to sue some other government official for violating your civil rights, a Plaintiff must demonstrate the offending public employee knew…
On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court narrowed employment protections from state and federal anti-discrimination laws for religious schoolteachers. In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, No. 19-267, the Court held that the First Amendment’s religion clauses foreclose courts from hearing employment-discrimination claims from teachers at religious…
One cannot fix what is not recognized to exist, nor fix which is not understood to be broken. Assimilation for Black Americans is near impossible. Skin color cannot be escaped and keeping quiet does not hide racial identity. The blackness of an African American’s skin makes their basic human and…
When Donald J. Trump was elected president in 2016, gay and lesbian leaders feared their far-reaching civil rights victories of recent years would be in peril because of the imminent arrival of scores of conservative judges and full Republican control of the federal government. But on Monday, June 15, 2020,…
By passing and signing into law the New Jersey Equal Pay Act (EPA), our state legislature and Governor Murphy made clear that unequal pay practices based on a person’s gender, race, national origin, disability or other protected class characteristic, for employees performing same or similar work, will not be tolerated…
The unemployment rate in the United States has soared to 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and is expected to continue to increase. In just the past few weeks alone, more than 1 million people have filed unemployment claims in New Jersey. In response to this…
As discussed in Mashel Law’s last blog posting, when a worker stricken with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), or likely exposed to same, needs to take time off to recover from the effects of the virus or to quarantine themselves from spreading it to family and coworkers, he or she may…
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads its fear and pestilence throughout our communities, it is important for New Jersey workers to be aware there are many employment laws available to protect their jobs should they need time off from work because they or a family member becomes sick from the virus.…