Union, New Jersey, Legal Blog

Workplace discrimination has been under the microscope in recent years, leading to intense efforts to reduce on-the-job prejudice. Still, New Jersey workers may find themselves subjected to various levels of mistreatment on the job. Recognizing it when it occurs can be important to putting a stop to the behavior.

There are certain types of on-the-job discrimination that happen often without reprisal. These include caregiver, pregnancy and age discrimination. For example, workers who have young children or need to care for a loved one could be confronted with caregiver discrimination. Employers are often reluctant to allow employees flexible schedules and extra time off to provide care. This can spark discriminatory behaviors such as denying the worker a promotion, not giving them time off or failing to give a deserved raise.

Approximately 60% of employees working in New Jersey and across the United States have experienced or witnessed some sort of workplace discrimination, according to a recent survey. The poll was posted by Glassdoor at the end of 2019.

The survey found that over 75% of U.S. workers believe their employer has hired a diverse workforce. However, around 60% of workers in the survey also reported that they had personally experienced or witnessed on-the-job discrimination based on race, gender, age or LGBTQ identity. Specifically, 45% of workers said they had experienced or seen workplace age discrimination, 42% said they had experienced or seen gender or race discrimination and 33% said they had experienced or seen LGBTQ discrimination. The study also found that U.S. workers were more likely to face discrimination than workers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, who were also included in the survey.

Large companies such as Google and Papa John's have used implicit bias training in an effort to make their organizations more inclusive. However, there is some question as to whether their employees in New Jersey and throughout the country actually benefit from it. Research has shown that attempt to teach people about their biases may actually work to further affirm their views. Ultimately, implicit bias training may only be effective if people want to learn about stereotypes and how to overcome them.

There is also some question as to whether it's possible to determine a person's implicit biases. One test revealed that people who had racist tendencies behaved in much the same way as those who didn't show them. Telling a person who hasn't acted in an overtly racist manner that he or she could still be a racist may not be the best idea.

Employers in New Jersey and around the country can be held accountable by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission when they fail to address discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The EEOC launched an investigation when several workers at the ride-sharing company Uber complained about sexual harassment and retaliation, and the agency reported on Dec. 18 that the complaints appear to be legitimate.

The EEOC says that it has reasonable cause to determine that Uber tolerated a culture of sexual harassment and retaliated against workers who complained. The California-based ride-sharing company has agreed to pay $4.4 million to settle the matter. An Uber representative said that the company was pleased to work with the EEOC and has replaced its CEO and changed its workplace culture since the events investigated by the agency took place. Initial reports do not reveal how many Uber workers are expected to be compensated.