Blog: Employment Law

You may be heading to your next job interview armed with a resume, a portfolio, and a selection of your most brag-worthy achievements. When seeking employment, you should also be aware of your legal rights. Even if you’re a strong candidate on paper, an employer may consider your race, religion, and even your age when …

Workplace discrimination takes a variety of forms. Discrimination results in a worker or job applicant being treated differently or less favorably due to that individual’s age, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or other protected status. Unfortunately, workers sometimes encounter discrimination at work due to both their race and/or gender. While the COVID-19 pandemic …

A spokesperson for New York City’s Department of Buildings recently commented that in its first five days of enforcing COVID-19 safety protocols, the department issued 88 citations, which included 41 orders to stop work at construction sites. These citations come after the Department’s use of Geographic Information System technology, which integrates compliance data with mapping …

COVID-19 numbers increase, but the economy also continues reopening. To anticipate challenges, many companies, including Amazon, plan on testing workers for COVID-19. To further complicate this issue, however, there is little federal guidance on how to navigate the illegality of such employment practices. Employers Begin Taking Preventative Measures Many employers have begun adopting measures to …

In June, a divided Supreme Court ruled in favor of extending federal discrimination protections to LGBTQ workers from employment discrimination. This decision marks a substantial shift. LGBTQ activists throughout the country have fought for decades to see revisions of this kind made to Title VII. While the four liberal Justices ruled in favor of the …

In parts of New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere in the country, many employers have been performing employee temperature checks as well as temperatures checks of vendors to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Creating these protocols also help customers feel safe about visiting essential businesses. While companies like Walmart have publicized that they …

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States grows past 100,000, many companies have sent workers home for what is still an uncertain length of time. There are also reports of employers requiring workers to physically report to work during the COVID-19 outbreak as well as details about several people getting coronavirus …

In the past few days, the federal and New York state legislatures have altered rules regarding employee sick leave and family leave. While both business owners and workers are attempting to navigate various challenges posed by the global pandemic, it is critical to appreciate the basics of these changes. The following will review changes to federal, …

You got the interview. Now it is time to put your best foot forward and make a great impression. Anyone who has looked for a job knows that a job search can be exhausting and emotionally fatiguing for even the most resilient job seeker. So, what happens when an employer asks inappropriate questions during an …

According to a​ ​recent poll​ reported by NPR, as many as 81% of all women surveyed claimed to have been the victims of sexual harassment at some point in their lives. This remarkable, but perhaps unsurprising, statistic highlights the fact that sexual harassment continues to be very much a part of the American workplace. So, …

When an employee of a company or agency exposes his or her employer’s legal violation, that employee becomes a “whistleblower.” Whistleblowers can be employees who expose illegal practices ranging from sexual harassment to violations of environmental or safety regulations. Laws Protecting Whistleblowers Various whistleblower protection laws exist on both the state and federal levels. These …

Long Island Employment Discrimination Lawyers Explore Marital Status Discrimination A large percentage of the American population is divorced. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, over 813,000 divorces and annulments are filed each year. Divorce is a common occurrence that should never impact one’s ability to obtain or retain a job. Yet, all …

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is charged with the enforcement of Federal laws that prohibit discrimination by employers against employees and those seeking employment. The types of discrimination that are covered under these laws include discrimination due to race, color, origin, sex, equal pay, pregnancy, sexual harassment, genetic information, age, disability, religion and …

In a report published in 2015, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that over 40% of workers in this country have non-standard employment arrangements, i.e., jobs that fall outside of the traditional relationship between employers and employees. This growing group, defined by the GAO as a “contingent workforce,” is comprised largely of independent contractors, part-time …

People with disabilities today are protected by the law when they’re at work, at school, or seeking to participate in a government program. They enjoy several civil rights guarantees afforded by the law, but that wasn’t always the case. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, setting out to secure equal opportunity …

Nurses play an important role in delivering healthcare to patients. It is the nurse who tends to a patient first before seeing a doctor. It is the nurse who answers many of the questions for you and your loved ones. It is the nurse who assists a doctor in surgery or non-invasive procedures. Simply put, …

Once limited to design engineers, upper management, and C-level executives, employees with almost any special abilities and/or supervisory authority in Long Island are now asked to sign non-competition agreements as a condition of employment. Because a hasty or ill-informed decision at the pre-hire phase can have devastating consequences in later years, partnering with an experienced …

Could your tattoo cause you to lose a choice position? It depends. Laws regarding body art and ink have expanded in the last decades, but employers still reserve the right to require that some workers in certain positions hide their artwork. What if the tattoo is in an impossible-to-hide location? As tattoos have become more …