The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination specifically prohibits any person – whether an employer, a supervisor, a co-worker or someone else – from retaliating against any other person who has (a) opposed unlawful discrimination or harassment, (b) filed a discrimination/harassment complaint, (c) testified in a legal proceeding regarding discrimination/harassment, (d) assisted anyone in a legal proceeding regarding discrimination/harassment, or (e) aided someone else in asserting his or her right to be free from discrimination/harassment.
So your employer is violating the law if it is treating you differently because you opposed or complained of discrimination or harassment (for yourself or someone else), supported a co-worker in a claim of unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation, filed a discrimination or harassment complaint or participated in any investigation or legal proceeding involving those allegations.
So, by its very nature, for something to be retaliatory, it must come after the employee opposed, filed a complaint of, assisted someone else with a claim of or testified in a legal proceeding regarding unlawful discrimination or harassment.
In a very general sense, retaliation involves employers treating employees differently than they did before. Beyond that, retaliation takes a lot of different forms and can look like a lot of different things. For example, it can mean being fired, written up, given bad performance evaluations, denied bonuses, denied promotions, or just generally being treated poorly.
The New Jersey workers’ compensation law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for seeking workers’ compensation for workplace injuries.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act and the New Jersey Family Leave Act both prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for asking for or taking family leave (meaning time off to take care of a seriously ill relative or for the birth or adoption of a child). The federal law also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for asking for or taking medical leave (meaning time off from work for the employee’s own serious medical condition).
If you are being or have been retaliated against in violation of the Law Against Discrimination or the workers’ compensation law or because you asked for or took leave under the FMLA or FLA, call New Jersey’s unlawful retaliation attorneys at Lenzo & Reis, LLC, in Morristown, at (973) 845-9922. Complete our convenient form to reach us online. We help whistleblowers fight employer retaliation throughout New Jersey.