Workers are currently protected against many forms of discrimination by employment laws. Whether you are entering the job market for…
Conflict is just a fact of life. Even when we were toddlers, it seems we had issues and were verbal about what we didn’t like. We argued with our siblings about our possessions and our “standing in the family”… even though being the oldest didn’t always trump other factors. Things didn’t change once we got to school either – there was always something to whine about it seems. No two people are alike and we are not cut from the same cloth so there is always bound to be disagreement among our peers.
In the workplace, disagreement and dissension among the ranks is also common. Sure, there is the differences of opinion over college sport teams and that rivalry is acceptable. Even the occasional political bickering over one’s favorite candidate or values, as long as it does not get out of hand, may be the topic bandied about the water cooler.
On Monday, November 2, 2015, President Obama introduced the concept of the “Drop the Box” initiative in a speech given at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. The President announced a new executive order which will be geared to prohibit federal agencies from requesting job applicants to reveal if they have a criminal record. This initiative is part of Mr. Obama’s overall criminal justice reform effort. The “Drop the Box” initiative would allow prospective employees not to check a box on some federal applications that acknowledge a criminal record, which essentially thwarts any potential employee who possesses a criminal record from obtaining a government job. The President says he hopes that one day all companies could abide by this principle, not just federal agencies, and cites the good works of large companies like Koch Industries, Target and Wal-Mart who have already eliminated the question posed of a prior criminal record from their job applications. Now, it is up to Congress to pass the legislation and push for nationwide acceptance of the “Drop the Box” campaign.
Chances are if you work in a company, business or even a store, that water cooler talk is always prevalent in the office. Especially true when there is some sort of a presidential election going on like there is right now. People always want to chime in as to who they want to win, think should win, or what their different outlooks are in terms of the election, their political choices, etc. People often talk about all sorts of things at work, but politics should definitely not be one of them. In fact, the more you think this is innocent, the more people keep proving you wrong – recently a survey was done on the Career Builders website where 36% of people said that they talked about politics at work and 46% said they planned on talking about politics at work.
It might be the year 2015, but there is still a lot of unlawful discrimination going on in our world, even for pregnant women. In 2006, the EEOC actually received over 5000 complaints from new moms where they were having trouble at work because they were pregnant. But, in 2015, while this number has gone down, it’s still quite a problem and is still quite prevalent in the workplace. There are laws that keep you safe, however, but sometimes it’s less about complaining about being treated unfairly and more about knowing your rights. If you are pregnant or you want to know more about pregnancy discrimination, continue to read below for more information.
While an employee needs to be aware of their rights and some of the laws as an employee for a business, entity or company, a manager or supervisor needs to be aware of ALL of the legal laws and rules when it comes to labor and employment laws. Most of the companies out there work diligently and closely with Human Resources to make sure that certain laws and rules are being followed. If you are a supervisor, manager or even an assistant manager, there are certain laws that you should be aware of when it comes to employees and employment laws to ensure compliance in a company. These laws can be found below, make sure you brush up on these laws and are aware of any updates or changes in the New Year. If you are an employee reading this article and you read the information below, make sure you talk to a New Jersey employment Attorney before making any brash decisions.
When it comes to salary laws versus hourly employees the laws are created by the U.S. Department of Labor in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. While the rules are created by the U.S. Department of Labor is the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, they are enforced by the Wage and Hour Division. The Wage and Hour division are also the people that investigate things like employee claims, and unfair practices such as minimum wage, OT, working hours and more. If you ever wondered about the differences between salaried and hourly employees or you are in one position offering one type of pay and are being offered another position for another type of pay, it’s a good idea to do some research and get familiar with the rules for each position, as well as labor laws. Below, we will be going over the law, the two types of employees that work in house, differences between salaried and hourly employees – the good and the not so good, as well as who enforces the laws and what can be done if you find that certain laws or rules are being broke.
In certain situations where you are the employee and the boss is the big honcho he or she might find it funny to belittle you. Frankly, I dislike people like this. People that think just because they are the “boss” that they can treat employees however they want because they can. But, there is a line between someone being a bully – a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk, and someone physically hurting you or discriminating against you because of your weight, skin color, orientation or you origin. If your boss is a bully, you’ll probably know he’s a bully by the way it makes you feel and or look in front of others. For example, let’s say you have a boss and he kicked you, like he physically kicked you with his foot. Is this against the law? If anything physical ever happens at the office, here are things you will want to know when it concerns the law or contacting an employment lawyer in NJ.
In a perfect world you could get pregnant and you could still keep your job without your boss or other people harassing you. In a perfect world, people wouldn’t act disgraceful and wouldn’t make you stressed out during an emotion time in your life. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and sometimes you run into jerks that think they are above the law or they think they can do whatever they want because they are the “boss”. If there are laws to protect same sex couples, laws to protect people with disabilities and laws to protect people from being discriminated against because of creed or race you better be darn sure there are also laws against pregnancy harassment! If you are pregnant and you feel that you are being harassed, take a look at the steps below under the employment law to see if you qualify for pregnancy harassment and what you can do.
Gay Marriage is one of those things that has become really wide spread over the US in the past few years. You are either one of those states that allows gay marriage or you are not. States are always popping up on the news as far as same sex marriages go in 2015 won’t be any different. In fact, at the start of 2015 on January 6th, Florida had become the 36th state to legalize same sex marriage. WOW. 36 states? Imagine that! This is definitely not something you would have seen 5, 10 or 15 years ago. But, with change comes both good and bad. Just because same sex marriage is legal in 30 some states, doesn’t mean that everyone is “okay” with it or will make your work life easier because of it. In fact, in some states, you may see a major up strike in people getting harassed at work because they are gay and or because they are involved in a same sex marriage. There are things you should be aware of when it comes to Same Sex laws and Discrimination in the workplace especially when it comes to same sex marriages. Be sure to continue reading below for employment law rules on FMLA, pensions, benefits, marital status discrimination and more. If you have read this article and think that your employer has discriminated against you, you may want to contact an employment attorney in NJ for a consultation.