Racial Discrimination Category Archives — New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog Published by New Jersey Employment Attorneys

Published on: April 28, 2023

Advancing a Viable Retaliation Claim in New Jersey, Even Without Successfully Proving Discrimination or Harassment

As this blog has discussed before — but it definitely bears repeating again — when an employer retaliates against an employee for pursuing a claim of discrimination or harassment, that employee can secure a favorable judgment on retaliation even if the discrimination or harassment claim ultimately fails. To find out what legal options most sense for your situation, reach out to a skilled New Jersey workplace retaliation lawyer.

A recent federal discrimination and retaliation case is a good illustration of two things. One is the retaliation-related issue discussed above. The other is a reminder of the evidentiary elements it takes to succeed on a race discrimination claim.

The plaintiff, F.S., was a Black woman and a managerial employee for the state Superior Court in Camden, having started there in 2013. Problems allegedly arose quickly and the manager filed a discrimination suit under the Law Against Discrimination in 2014.

Published on: April 21, 2023

How an Employer’s Internal Investigation May Form the Basis of an Employee’s Winning Retaliation Claim

by Phillips & Associates

Workers who raise complaints of discrimination face many on-the-job risks, including retaliatory termination. Sometimes, the retaliatory motive may be evident in the employer’s stated (bogus) reason for termination. Other times, the stated reason may be legitimate but the investigation that preceded it may have been the product of retaliatory motivations. In either circumstance, your employer’s “retaliatory animus” may be enough to give you a winning retaliation case. If you think you’ve been the victim of that kind of illegal employment practice, don’t wait to contact a knowledgeable New Jersey workplace retaliation lawyer to discuss your situation.

Here’s an example of what we mean. J.C. was a Black man who worked for a steel fabricator in southeast Pennsylvania. The employee suffered from herniated discs and arthritis in his back, a disability that caused him to pursue leave from work under the Family Medical Leave Act.

The employer fired the man in the summer of 2019. It claimed that it had found proof on his cell phone that he’d been soliciting sex workers while on company time and company property. The fired employee contended that the company fired him in retaliation for his complaints of race discrimination and disability discrimination, as well as using FMLA leave.

Published on: March 10, 2023

Two White School Employees in Newark Recover $1.3M Jury Award in Race Discrimination Action

by Phillips & Associates

When one hears the phrase “reverse discrimination,” it can be easy to fall into misconceptions regarding how anti-discrimination laws work. While these laws play an essential role in eliminating discrimination against traditionally marginalized and oppressed groups (such as Black people, women, religious minorities, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, etc.,) the intent and the goal of these laws in New Jersey goes further. The courts in this state have been clear that the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination exists to eradicate the “cancer” of discrimination in all its forms when that discrimination occurs based on a protected characteristic. So, even if you were the target of discrimination because you were White, male, straight, an American citizen, etc., you have just as much protection under the law and, with the assistance of a skilled New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer, just as much opportunity to recover compensation for the harm you suffered.

The age and race discrimination case of two North Jersey school employees was a reminder of this truth for one Essex County school system. As nj.com reported, one of the educators, A.D., was a White woman in her 60s working at a Newark high school where the student population was 90% Black. The other educator, D.S., also was a White woman in her 60s and served as the chair of the math department at a high school where the student population was 78% Latino.

In 2013, when the educators were in their 50s, they applied for vice principal positions. Both were rejected. D.S., in fact, got transferred to a different school and demoted to lunch aide, according to the lawsuit. A.D. allegedly got reassigned, which carried with it a pay cut.

Published on: February 21, 2023

When Once is (or Isn’t) Enough: Racist/Sexist/Homophobic/Etc. Slurs and Hostile Work Environment Claims in New Jersey

by Phillips & Associates

The N-word… the B-word… the F-word… the C-word. They’re all incredibly offensive (as indicated by their censoring here.) Sometimes, one-time uses of certain slurs may be enough to satisfy the “severe or pervasive” standard federal law demands. With cases involving other words, however, you may need something more. To get a clear understanding of the proof you need for your hostile work environment case, talk to an experienced New Jersey sex discrimination lawyer to discuss the parameters of your situation.

Before he ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court, then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote of the “N-word” that it is “probably the most offensive word in English.” For this reason, courts have declared a single utterance of this word to be enough to constitute severe discrimination.

Other words, however, generally will carry less weight. For example, many courts have ruled that a single use of the misogynistic “B-word” isn’t sufficient to establish, by itself, a hostile work environment. As a recent sex discrimination case from Cape May reminds us, though, supervisors who direct that word toward a female employee often do it more than once, and repeated uses of it can be sufficient to establish the necessary degree of severity or pervasiveness to make out a hostile work environment claim.

Published on: February 14, 2023

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

by Phillips & Associates

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 24, 2023

A White Police Chief on the Jersey Shore Recovers a $500K Settlement to Resolve His Race Discrimination Case

by Phillips & Associates

In a 2007 case, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” While many — including members of the Supreme Court — disagree, his analysis serves as a reminder of two very important things. First, discrimination on the basis of race is illegal. Second, that previous sentence can be true even if the alleged victim is white. Regardless of your race or color, if you think you’ve been targeted for adverse treatment at work based on a protected characteristic, you should contact a knowledgeable New Jersey race discrimination lawyer to discuss your legal options.

One New Jersey township whose police department has a long history of alleged workplace discrimination is paying out once again in the aftermath of a Law Against Discrimination claim, according to the Asbury Park Press. In this instance, however, the plaintiff was a white man.

According to the lawsuit, two of the township’s committeemen — who were also members of the Police Oversight Committee — collaborated with a consultant and a lawyer to discriminate against the plaintiff, who was also the police chief.

Published on: December 23, 2022

A New Jersey HR Director Obtains $500K in Punitive Damages and $1.3M in Attorney’s Fees in Her Sex Discrimination Case

by Phillips & Associates

When it comes to matters of discrimination and/or harassment, we all know there are gradations. There are employers who violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination because they made an honest mistake when it comes to the law, such as misconstruing when the law demands that they accommodate a worker’s disability. Other times, though, employers engage in harassment and/or discrimination in ways that are much more nefarious. They discriminate with malice or with reckless indifference to the illegality of their conduct. Sometimes, they also try to wear you down through litigation that is vexatious, frivolous, or advanced in bad faith. When these things occur, it pays to have a skilled New Jersey employment discrimination lawyer on your side to help you get everything you deserve, including awards of punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

A recent South Jersey race and sex discrimination case is an example of an employee who succeeded on both those compensation fronts.

M.H., a Black woman, was the human resources director at a South Jersey housing firm. Her employer, as part of its year-end meetings, presented purportedly lighthearted and humorous slideshows. The HR director, however, recognized many of the pictures’ captions in the 2015 slideshow as inappropriate. According to the lawsuit, the employer attached captions like “I want mine big like these,” “What a nice set,” and “Mary’s are bigger” to photos of female employees who had held balloons to their chests as part of a team-building exercise earlier in the year.

Published on: November 17, 2022

A New Jersey Police Detective Landed a $1M Settlement After Coworkers Hung a Stuffed Monkey in a Noose Outside His Workstation

by Phillips & Associates

We’d all like to hope that working professionals would, in this day and age, be past the point of using monkey images or monkey sounds as a way to taunt, tease, demean, or intimidate a Black coworker. Sadly, it’s not true. What’s more, many of these alleged instances of vile misconduct occur among the people who promised to protect and serve: the law enforcement community. Whether or not you work in a law enforcement capacity, you should not have to put with monkey jokes/references/pictures/etc. at work. If you have encountered these things on the job, you need to get in touch with an experienced New Jersey race discrimination lawyer right away.

Monkey references/images demean Black people by implying they’re more animal than human. Noose references/images intimidate Black workers by evoking the violence of the lynching of Black people, especially in the American South. In one New Jersey police facility, the perpetrator allegedly combined both of these offensive tropes, according to a report in The Trentonian.

The target, D.J., was a crime scene detective with the Trenton Police Department. During his time in that role, D.J. was the department’s only Black crime scene detective.

Published on: September 30, 2022

Employers’ Affirmative Action Policies and Race Discrimination in New Jersey

by Phillips & Associates

A collective bargaining agreement between teachers and a school district in Minnesota has made waves inside and outside the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The part of the agreement receiving the most scrutiny is the one establishing affirmative action in layoffs. While the Minnesota agreement will affect no New Jersey workers, it still makes for a useful opportunity to remind New Jersey workers that the law has limits on what employers can do in efforts to remediate historical and/or systemic racism. Some programs, however well intended, may cross the line into the realm of illegal race discrimination, giving those harmed the opportunity, with the aid of a skilled New Jersey race discrimination lawyer, the opportunity to pursue – and win – a civil lawsuit.

The Minnesota agreement, which was between the Minneapolis Public Schools and the teachers’ union, said that teachers who were members of “underrepresented populations” were exempt from the general rule for layoffs, which was one of “last hired, first fired.” In other words, in the event of layoffs, the school district would potentially bypass a teacher of color with less seniority and instead select a white teacher with more seniority for that layoff.

Supporters of the policy hailed it as a necessary step to make up for past discrimination against people of color and the underrepresentation of communities of color among the schools’ faculties, helping schools’ faculties to look would more closely like the students they’re teaching. Opponents decried the rule as a blatant instance of race discrimination against white teachers.

Published on: July 29, 2022

A Supervisor, a Prank Phone Call, and Racial Slurs: The Ingredients of a Viable Hostile Work Environment Case for 5 New Jersey Workers

by Phillips & Associates

The law of discrimination and harassment has, over the years, stated several things. One is that harassment or discrimination by a supervisor or manager is often worse that similar conduct by peer employee. Additionally, many courts have also said that even just one use of the “N-word” packs sufficient harm in it to qualify as severe discrimination or harassment. When your case involves both of those elements, then chances are often high that, with representation from a knowledgeable New Jersey race discrimination lawyer, you will be able to overcome a defense motion for summary judgment and have your “day in court” before a jury.

A recent race discrimination case from North Jersey is an illustration of these recurring issues. The workers were five Black employees who worked for an air conditioning systems and service company.

The crux of the workers’ case arose in April 2018 when their supervisor took what he declared to be a “prank call” in his office during a break. The call, which the supervisor put on speakerphone, featured a voice who spoke in a “Donald Duck-like” voice while threatening violence and including the N-word in his comments. According to the lawsuit, the supervisor put the call on speakerphone “with no prompting” from the other people in his office at the time.