Employer Retaliation Attorney in New Jersey, New Jersey
Are there New Jersey laws that protect against retaliation for requesting medical or family leave or reasonable accommodations?
Are there New Jersey laws that protect against retaliation for requesting medical or family leave or reasonable accommodations?
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yes there are so in terms of reasonable
accommodations and medical leave those
would be handled under the New Jersey
law against discrimination which is our
general um employment civil rights
statute that applies to discrimination
in the workplace disability
discrimination is prohibited under under
that statute and that statute also
requires employers to provide reasonable
accommodations for employees who have a
disability one of the reasonable
accommodations that an employee can
request is a leave of absence from work
to recover from an injury or illness it
could be surgery for a broken bone it
could be cancer treatment um you know
any type of physical mental or emotional
condition that prohibits the employee
from doing their essential job duties
for a temporary time period so employees
have a right to request reasonable
accommodations and if it doesn’t impose
an undue burden on the employer they
have a right to um get that
accommodation including a medical leave
if the employer then when they return
from leave says “Oh we don’t have a job
for you anymore.” That would be a form
of both retaliating for reasonable
accommodation and I if the accommodation
was a leave of absence retaliating for a
medical leave of absence in terms of a
family leave of absence uh that could
also be covered under the New Jersey law
against discrimination depending on uh
the reason that the uh employee is out
the employee is out for the adoption of
a child or the foster placement of a
child that probably wouldn’t be covered
under the New Jersey law against
discrimination but if the employee is
out for the birth of a child whether
it’s the woman giving birth or her male
partner there’s a concept called
associational discrimination which is
that if you’re associated with somebody
of a particular protected characteristic
under the anti-discrimination laws you
can’t be subjected to differential
treatment by your employer because of
that association in New Jersey the case
that established the idea was a case
involving a white sheriff’s officer who
was either married to or living with a
black woman and felt that he was treated
differently at work because of that um
so here if a woman takes maternity leave
to give birth or if her uh male partner
takes paternity leave in connection with
the birth of the baby um it would be
considered either pregnancy
discrimination or um in the case of the
male partner associational pregnancy
discrimination if the employer took
adverse action against the employee
because of the maternity or paternity
leave if the employee is taking family
leave to take care of a seriously ill
relative that’s going to be
associational discrimination under the
New Jersey law against discrimination as
well because the person they’re taking
care of has a disability and they’re
being penalized because they’re
associated with somebody who has a
disability if the uh employee took
family leave for the adoption of a child
or the foster placement of a child their
only protection would probably be under
New Jersey law under the New Jersey
Family Leave Act which provides for
unpaid family leave for among other
things uh the adoption or foster
placement of a child the employee would
also have a claim under the Federal
Family and Medical Leave Act for the
same thing
Morristown, NJ employment law attorney Chris Lenzo talks about New Jersey laws that protect against retaliation for requesting medical or family leave or reasonable accommodations.
