Allyn & Fortuna LLPPaula Lopez, May 5, 2017. In a challenge by a New Jersey law firm and the National Employment Lawyers Association to N.J.A.C. 12:17-2.1, a 2015 regulation passed by the Department of Labor and Workforce defining employee conduct that renders him or her ineligible to receive unemployment benefits following termination, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that the Department’s attempt to define “simple misconduct,” and distinguish it from behavior amounting to “severe misconduct” and “gross misconduct,” is arbitrary and capricious and therefore invalid. A worker in New Jersey fired…
Paula Lopez, September 18, 2014. New Jersey has become the sixth state to enact “ban the box” legislation, restricting private employers within its state from inquiring into an applicant’s criminal record during the initial application process. It is called the “Opportunity to Compete Act” and was signed into law by Governor Christie on August 11, 2014, but does not go into effect until March 1, 2015. The version of the law that was passed is a compromise between the employers’ interests in making fully-informed hiring decisions and the…
Paula Lopez, February 5, 2014. Employers in New York City and New Jersey are now required to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant employees. While State and Federal laws prohibit employers from discriminating against pregnant employees, none of these laws require employers to provide reasonable accommodations. Instead, reasonable accommodations have only been required to the extent that they are available to similarly-situated non-pregnant employees. Effective January 30, 2014, the New York City Human Rights Law was amended to prohibit discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. And,…