Ethnicity / National Origin Discrimination Category Archives — New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog Published by New Jersey Employment Attorneys

Published on: February 14, 2023

A Federal Class Action in New Jersey Considers Whether Walmart’s Hiring Policies Violated Discrimination Laws

Both federal law and New Jersey law generally bar disparate impact discrimination, which occurs when an employer’s action has a disproportionately harmful effect on people of a protected class. These actions may often target employer standards, practices, or rules that seem to be neutral but, in function, end up disparately harming people like women, Black workers, Latinos, older workers, etc. If you’ve encountered an employment practice like that and suffered harm as a result, then you may have a viable discrimination case, and you should contact a knowledgeable New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer to find out more.

J.R. and E.J. allegedly were two of those people harmed as a result of racially discriminatory hiring. J.R. was both Black and Latina and applied for employment with Walmart in 2020. Prior to applying, the New Jersey woman had completed an internship with a Walmart subsidiary in Hoboken, according to her complaint. Allegedly, she did the same entry-level IT support work at the subsidiary that she would have performed with Walmart and was successful enough that her supervisor suggested that she apply to Walmart.

The woman’s interviews were successful and Walmart extended an offer of employment, only to rescind that offer just a few days later. The retraction was the result of content the employer found on the applicant’s criminal history. At some point earlier in J.R.’s life, she had been arrested. According to her complaint, she was “with friends who committed the crime in question,” and she pled guilty to a felony charge as part of a plea bargain because she feared “receiving a lengthy prison sentence” if she went to trial.

Published on: January 31, 2023

The Crucial Deadlines in Any New Jersey Employment Discrimination Case

by Phillips & Associates

We all face deadlines at work, and missed deadlines can be costly in any arena. When it comes to discrimination lawsuits, a missed deadline — sometimes missed by as little as one day — can mean catastrophic results for the worker harmed by illegal discrimination. Timely filings, in addition to all other aspects of procedural rule compliance, represent a vital area where a diligent and experienced New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer can benefit your case.

I.K. allegedly was one of those workers where deadlines were an issue. She was an underwriter for a major insurance company who resigned to start working for a competing insurance company. The worker’s old employer sued her for trade secret violations and breach of contract. The underwriter filed a counterclaim, alleging illegal race/ethnicity and age discrimination.

As noted above, avoiding potential timeliness issues may be crucial to success. In the underwriter’s case, the former employer contended that a critical 90-day deadline had elapsed, which meant I.K. could not pursue her discrimination counterclaims.

Published on: December 16, 2022

Edison-Based Staffing Firm that Allegedly Discriminating Against U.S. Citizens and Resident Immigrants Agrees to a $26K Settlement

by Phillips & Associates

Generally, when one hears the phrase “national origin discrimination,” one immediately calls to mind discrimination against non-citizens or citizens of certain ancestral backgrounds (such as anti-Asian discrimination, anti-Latino discrimination. etc.) However, the full spectrum of national origin discrimination actually goes beyond that, also including incidents of employment discrimination where U.S. citizens were the group targeted for illegal treatment. While less common, it is just as illegal. If you’ve encountered discrimination based on your national ancestry and/or your immigration status, whether you were an immigrant, a non-citizen temporary worker, or a U.S. citizen, you should contact a knowledgeable New Jersey national origin discrimination lawyer to discuss your legal options.

As noted above, while discrimination against U.S. citizens makes up a minority of all national origin/immigration status cases, it does occur. In fact, one central Jersey employer recently agreed to pay a five-figure settlement for allegedly engaging in that sort of discriminatory conduct.

The employer was an Edison Township-based staffing company that hired workers in the engineering and information technology (IT) industries. Starting at the beginning of 2019 and continuing at least into April 2020, the staffing firm posted a dozen or more IT job listings that said that the successful applicant should be temporary visa workers (such as individuals with H-1B visas.)

Published on: September 9, 2022

Defeating Your Employer’s Arbitration Agreement Based on that Clause’s Ambiguous or Misleading Nature

by Phillips & Associates

Many times, employers prefer to resolve employees’ claims of discrimination or harassment through arbitration rather than litigation. To that end, they often place arbitration clauses within the employment documents that new hires sign at the start of their employment. Sometimes, those provisions are clearly written and properly presented to provide the new employee with fair notice of the clause’s terms. However, when they’re not, then you as an employee may be able to use those facts to escape arbitration. If you’re pursuing an employment discrimination case and you need to defeat an arbitration provision, an experienced New Jersey national origin discrimination lawyer can show what avenues may be available to you to get that done.

The national origin discrimination case of G.R. is an example of a dispute that turned on the arbitration clause he signed.

G.R., a man of Turkish and European descent, accepted a role as the Director of Human Resources at a pharmaceutical company’s US headquarters in Berkeley Heights. As part of the acceptance process, G.R. signed several papers, including an acceptance letter and something labeled a “Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement.” The latter was six pages long and contained an arbitration clause situated at the top of page five.

Published on: August 31, 2022

What You Do — and Don’t — Need to Overcome Your Employer’s Motion for Summary Judgment in Your New Jersey Employment Discrimination Case

by Phillips & Associates

Success in an employment discrimination lawsuit in New Jersey is a series of steps that you have to navigate successfully, one at a time, to get to a successful outcome. Before you can have your day in court at a trial, you probably will need to defeat your employer’s motion for summary judgment. One of the key things to know about your case at the summary judgment stage is that you don’t have to present definitive proof that illegal conduct undoubtedly occurred. You simply have to offer enough to demonstrate that legitimate “questions of fact” exist regarding why your employer took its adverse action against you. As long as you have enough for a “rational factfinder” (a/k/a a jury in a jury trial or a judge in a bench trial) to find that the employer’s stated reasons were mere pretexts for discrimination, then your employer loses its motion and you get to proceed toward trial. Whatever phase your case is in, advice and advocacy from an experienced New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer can help you enhance your odds of success.

For an example of what you do — and don’t — need, there’s this recent national origin discrimination case from North Jersey.

N.O., a Nigerian woman living in New Jersey, taught elementary school in an Essex County school district from 2014 to 2017. N.O.’s job was a non-tenured one and, at the end of the 2016-17 school year, the district elected not to renew her contract, thus terminating her employment in June 2017.

Published on: June 23, 2022

How to Use Both Overt and Subtle Examples of Discriminatory Conduct to Make Your Case in New Jersey

by Phillips & Associates

Discrimination takes many different forms. Obviously, things like the “N-word” are extremely harmful and clearly racially discriminatory. However, the discriminatory conduct you endured does not necessarily have to be something as overt as that to be the basis for a successful discrimination case. If you think the mistreatment and harm you’ve endured at work was the result of your race, ethnicity, national origin, or other protected characteristic, then you should get in touch with an experienced New Jersey race discrimination lawyer to discuss your circumstance.

The religious and racial discrimination that M.T. allegedly endured illustrates this point well. The man, a Muslim born in India, worked as a software engineer for a temporary staffing agency. During that employment, M.T. worked on an assignment for a network of hospitals headquartered in North Jersey.

The engineer allegedly received many offensive comments and questions based on his religion. According to his complaint, these included “are you a jihadist” and “are you hiding a bomb?” The same coworker also allegedly told him to “shut up,” to “be quiet,” that “no one wants to know what you have to say,” that “nobody’s listening (to you),” and that coworkers don’t “understand your accent.”

Published on: April 15, 2022

The War in Ukraine and a Substantial Increase in Incidents of Anti-Russian Discrimination Around the World and Here in the U.S.

by Phillips & Associates

Twenty-nine years ago last month, Saturday Night Live debuted a skit where a white New Yorker (played by John Goodman) engages in numerous acts of vandalism because of his mistaken beliefs about the Middle Eastern ancestry of a store’s owner. The skit is a reminder that harming someone solely because of their national origin or ancestry is never right. If the person or entity doing that to you is your employer, it could be illegal and you can potentially recover substantial damages in a discrimination lawsuit. If you have encountered that kind of mistreatment, don’t delay in contacting an experienced New Jersey national origin discrimination lawyer to discuss your situation.

The SNL skit takes on renewed relevance this spring as incidents of discrimination against people of Russian origin or ancestry have increased dramatically following the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Japan Times reported about anti-Russian discrimination in that country, including an inn that refused to house guests from Russia or Belarus. Russians have also been banned from participating in major events like the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the Eurovision international song contest.

Published on: November 23, 2021

How a White New Jersey Police Dispatcher Came to Endure Anti-Black Harassment at Work… and Won a Settlement Because of It

by Phillips & Associates

Race discrimination and color discrimination can come in many different forms. It may be based upon your race, or it may be based on your family and other close relationships (like having a biracial child or a partner of a different race), or it may be based on something else altogether. Any of these kinds of discrimination, if they have harmed you at work, can potentially be the basis for a successful lawsuit under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. If it’s happened to you, you should get in touch with an experienced New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer right away.

Most all of us are familiar with what the term “racism” means. What is less well-known, but can be just as injurious, is “colorism,” when one person or group discriminates based upon skin color as opposed to racial classification. Generally, it involves situations where people of darker skin are treated less favorably than people of lighter skin. (In other words, favoring a lighten-skinned Black person over a darker-skinned Black person, or favoring a lighter-skinned Latino person over a darker-skinned Latino.)

Other times, a person may suffer discrimination due to their darker skin, even if they are not a member of any sort of racial minority. Even if you’re not Black or Latino, it can still be illegal discrimination, as allegedly was the case with a police dispatcher in Monmouth County recently.

Published on: July 9, 2021

Isolated Uses of the ‘N-Word’ Can Be ‘Severe’ Discrimination. The New Jersey Supreme Court Just Made a Similar Ruling About an Anti-Latino Slur.

by Phillips & Associates

Back in the 19th Century, an English children’s rhyme declared that “Sticks and stones may break my bones, But words shall never hurt me.” Today, we have a more nuanced and complete recognition of the power of words to inflict real damage, especially slurs directed at historically disadvantaged people. That includes the use of those epithets in the workplace. Even if the word isn’t used a lot, it may still be enough to “alter the terms and conditions” of your job. When that happens, you may have the proof you need to win an employment discrimination case in New Jersey.

The courts have already addressed the “N-word” and its potentially discriminatory impact on Black workers. Back in 2017, the federal Third Circuit court, whose appellate rulings impact federal cases in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, said that even just one use of that word by a supervisor, while obviously not pervasive discrimination, was enough to qualify as severe discrimination in violation of federal law.

While that slur is widely recognized as perhaps the vilest epithet, the New Jersey courts have addressed cases involving other words and other groups and whether isolated use of other racial/ethnic slurs can be severe enough to qualify as actionable discrimination. Recently, this state’s highest court decided that answer was “yes.”

Published on: January 28, 2021

What You Can Do as an Immigrant if You’ve Experienced Job Discrimination in New Jersey

by Phillips & Associates

Immigrants – both those who are documented and those who aren’t — face potential discrimination in a variety of forms and fashions. Some types – like comments about how immigrants should “go back to where they came from” or are “taking our jobs” – are obvious. Others are more subtle, though just as potentially damaging… and possibly even more so. Regardless of whether the discrimination that harmed you was obvious discrimination or subtle discrimination, it still may have been actionable discrimination, and you should talk to a knowledgeable New Jersey workplace discrimination attorney about your options.

The job application process is one place where subtle and insidious forms of discrimination can occur. They are insidious because the immigrant applicant may not even know that the employer has engaged in illegal practices, even though that’s exactly what has occurred.

One example of that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, occurred right here in North Jersey. An IT staffing company based in Basking Ridge was caught by the federal government engaging in improper hiring practices.