When it comes to pay practices, employers are accustomed to being told by federal, state, and local legislators what to do. DON’T engage in discriminatory pay practices. DO pay overtime when required. DO pay minimum wage. DON’T pay under the table. DO pay employees equally for equal work. DON’T ask applicants or employees their salary history when offering or negotiating pay. DON’T request a potential employee’s criminal history on a job application. The list goes on.
Continue Reading Equal Pay, Pay Transparency, and Job Postings: What Employers Need to Know Now
Non-Disparagement Clauses in Employment Contracts Still Valid Under New Jersey Law
Non-disparagement is not the same thing as non-disclosure. It seems simple and straightforward, except when it isn’t. That was the case of Savage v. Township of Neptune.
It was only a matter of time before New Jersey courts began passing judgment on the March 18, 2019 amendment to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) preventing the enforcement of non-disclosure agreements in employment contracts and settlement agreements. In 2019, pundits and practitioners questioned the breadth and scope of that supplement to the NJLAD. Three years later, in Savage v. Neptune, the New Jersey Appellate Division has now made clear that non-disparagement provisions are not covered by or included within the prohibition against non-disclosure provisions in employment contracts and settlement agreements.
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Remote & Alternative Work Arrangements – Strategies for Success and Reducing Risk
Let’s face it: remote, hybrid, and alternative work arrangements are here to stay. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Though many employers already had accepted and adopted remote, hybrid, and alternative work arrangements before the COVID-19 pandemic (and the consequential quarantining that came with it), COVID-19 accelerated the need for workforce mobility and fundamentally changed who we hire and how, when, and where we work.
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The ETS, the Supreme Court Ruling, and the Vax-or-Test Rollercoaster: What Should Your Business Do Now?
Updated as of 1/27/22 due to OSHA’s withdrawal of the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)
The vax-or-test legal rollercoaster ride continues, leaving human resource managers’ heads spinning, lawyers prognosticating, and employers simply wondering what comes next.
On January 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 majority decision, dealt a substantial blow to the future implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for large employers, putting the ETS on hold indefinitely pending further review by the United States Court of Appeal for the 6th Circuit (which had reinstated the vaccinate-or-test mandate). Among other things, the ETS mandated that all businesses with 100+ employees require their employees to either vaccinate (and provide proof thereof) or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing to attend work.
Employers, the Coronavirus, and the Reinstatement of the OSHA ETS: What Now?
On November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), requiring private employers having at least 100 employees companywide (at any given time) to adopt written policies and procedures either mandating vaccination against COVID-19 or requiring employees to choose between vaccination or undergo weekly testing while wearing a face-covering at work.
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70 is the New 40 – New Jersey Law Against Discrimination Expands Protections to Employees Over the Age of 70
On Tuesday, October 5, 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation that addressed a blind spot in the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination that actually enabled private employers to discriminate against employees on the basis of their age. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”), codified at N.J.S.A. 10:5-1, et seq., which in relevant part provides that “all persons shall have the opportunity to obtain employment without discrimination,” protects private employees in New Jersey against disparate treatment, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and other unequal employment practices on the basis of certain protected characteristics, including their age.
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Cuomo Resignation a Reminder of the Importance of Anti-Harassment Policies, Grievance Procedures and Workplace Investigations
On Tuesday, August 10, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation following the New York State Attorney General’s investigation into accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct from several female staffers. The 168-page investigation report found “the governor engaged in conduct constituting sexual harassment under federal and New York State law.”
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A “Significant Age Difference” Will Suffice to Advance an Age Discrimination Claim
Many employees who are let go or terminated from employment don’t know what happens at work once they’re gone. Sometimes employees know or subsequently learn, whether through word of mouth, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, or the employer’s website, that they have been replaced. Sometimes their replacement is someone significantly younger, yet it is unclear exactly how old the replacement is. In a recent ruling, the Third Circuit has held the lack of knowledge doesn’t matter, at least not at the pleading stage of the litigation.
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Appellate Division Decision Confirms Continued Employment May Constitute Assent to an Employer’s Emailed Arbitration Agreement
Once again, but not surprisingly, an arbitration agreement conveyed by an employer and confirmed by an employee via email has been upheld by the New Jersey courts.
In a recent decision, Jasicki v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the motion court’s dismissal of an employee’s claims of sexual harassment, compelling arbitration. Holding the employee agreed to the company’s mandatory arbitration program communicated via a company-wide email by (1) opening the email, (2) failing to opt-out of the arbitration program, and (3) continuing her employment, the Appellate Division validated email arbitration agreements in the employment context under these circumstances, despite the employee’s assertion she never actually read the email. In doing so, the Appellate Division reinforced our courts’ approval of these less traditional and more controversial vehicles for securing employee assent to arbitration agreements. In short, quoting its decision in Jaworski v. Ernst & Young, the Appellate Division wrote: “An email, properly couched, can be an appropriate medium for forming an arbitration agreement.”
Landmark Pinterest Settlement Reflects Continued Gender Gap in the Workplace
The federal Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206, was enacted in 1963 to protect against wage discrimination based on a person’s sex. The purpose of the Act is simple: men and women in the same workplace should be given equal pay for equal work. All forms of employment compensation are covered by the Act, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, incentive compensation, vacation, etc. Under the Act, if there is any inequality in wages between men and women who perform substantially equal jobs, the employer must make it right by raising wages to equalize and normalize pay. In addition, an employer who violates the Act is liable to its aggrieved employee in the amount of her (or his) unpaid compensation and an additional, equal amount as a liquidated damage, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs.
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