Union, New Jersey, Legal Blog

A new report by the Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity shows that workplace discrimination is alive and well. More than 60 percent of respondents said that they had been the victim of discrimination or harassment at their place of employment. Additionally, more than half of diverse respondents reported that they had experienced microaggressions and pushback when pitching ideas that were rejected, but those same ideas were often accepted at a later time when they were pitched by non-diverse employees.

The report was designed to examine how diverse television writers are being treated in Hollywood. Respondents included writers who identified themselves as female, non-binary, people of color, LGBTQ and people with disabilities. While more than half of the respondents were hired because of their diversity, very little opportunity was provided for those same employees to advance their careers. Many women reported that they were the only woman on the writing staff. The same was true for non-binary writers, people of color and LGBTQ writers.

Kia and Hyundai have announced that they are recalling 534,000 automobiles because of an engine issue that could lead to fires. The recall is effective in New Jersey and across the country and includes 379,000 Kia Souls manufactured between 2012 and 2016, along with Hyundai Tucsons from 2011 to 2013, Kia Sedonas from 2015 to 2018 and Kia Sportages from 2011 to 2012. Beginning in 2016, there began to arise reports from people who were driving normally under normal conditions when their vehicles suddenly caught fire.

Some of the drivers said they had to jump out of their vehicles before they exploded. At least one death has been attributed to a Kia that caught fire with the driver trapped inside. According to the Center for Auto Safety, 2.9 million vehicles from Kia and Hyundai will have to be recalled before the fire issue is fully addressed. The CAS has fielded more than 300 consumer complaints about non-collision fires in Kias and Hyundais since 2016.

Workers in New Jersey continue to face problems with sexual harassment and workplace discrimination, a reality that has drawn increased public attention as a result of the #MeToo movement. One report analyzed 20 years of data gathered by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on instances of sex discrimination on the job. Overall, the number of complaints has remained fairly steady, with a general rise in discrimination and harassment complaints over the 20 years between 1997 and 2017.

Of course, EEOC complaints do not tell the whole story. Many workers hesitate to file an EEOC complaint or otherwise use formal mechanisms, especially if they are concerned about retaliation. Retaliation for sexual harassment or discrimination claims is illegal, but lower-wage workers may feel especially at risk and ill-equipped to use the protections in the law. Of the complaints filed in 2017, 67 percent were found to show no reasonable cause that discrimination occurred. However, many women may not have all of the information that they need to pursue a complaint successfully, even when the discrimination was very much real.

New Jersey residents may know that terminating a worker solely due to age can be a violation of existing employment law. However, a 57-year-old woman who worked for IBM claimed that she was terminated to create openings for younger workers. According to her lawsuit, the woman claims that the company has routinely gotten rid of older workers while keeping younger ones employed. The plaintiff was terminated by the company in 2016.

The woman started with the company in 1984 and was employed as a sales representative when she was released by IBM. She claims that the company's CEO conducts a reorganization twice a year and that the goal is to create a workforce that is 75 percent millennial. According to data from ProPublica, IBM has shed 20,000 workers age 40 or older in the last five years.