NJ Harassment & Hostile Work Environment Lawyers

New Jersey Attorneys for Employees Subjected to Illegal Workplace Conduct

While many people have to contend with difficult personalities in the workplace, no one should be subjected to behavior that constitutes harassment. When harassment (including but not limited to sexual harassment) occurs in the workplace, that harassment can create a hostile work environment. A hostile work environment not only makes going to work unbearable for the person being harassed, but it can also result in significant financial losses. If you are being harassed at work, you may be able to recover damages from your employer.

Legal Protections from Harassment and Hostile Work Environments

Employees in New Jersey are protected from harassment in the workplace under both state and federal law. Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and/or the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) protect employees from discrimination. Harassment is considered a type of discrimination when the harassing conduct is based on a person’s membership in a protected class. Examples of protected classes under the state and federal laws include race, color, sex, religion, age, disability, and national origin.

Definition of a Hostile Work Environment

Whether harassment in the workplace is actionable depends on whether the employer is covered by a state or federal anti-discrimination law, and whether the employee is being harassed due to retaliation or his or her membership in a protected class as defined by any laws that cover the employer. A harassment attorney at our New Jersey firm can help you determine whether you have a claim, depending on the laws that apply to your employer and you. In other words, if an employer treats all employees poorly, regardless of retaliation or their race, ethnicity, age, or any other criteria, it most likely does not constitute workplace harassment. Inappropriate conduct does not need to come directly from an employer or supervisor to constitute harassment, however. Rather, employers have a duty to protect their employees from harassment in the workplace and may be held liable for harassment committed by one employee against another if the employer knew or should have known about the harassment and neglected to take timely and appropriate corrective action. Common examples of harassment include inappropriate comments, emails, or texts regarding a person’s age, weight, or race.

Harassment must rise to a level that creates a hostile work environment to be sufficient to sustain a claim against an employer. A skilled New Jersey harassment attorney can assess the facts of your case to determine whether you have a claim in this context. A hostile work environment exists where the offensive behavior is so pervasive or severe that it creates an environment that a person in the same protected class as the victim would reasonably find to be hostile, abusive, or intimidating, and that changes the conditions of the victim’s continued employment. There is no precise formula to determine whether conduct is so severe or pervasive that it creates a hostile work environment. Rather, in determining whether conduct is sufficiently pervasive or severe, courts assess numerous factors, such as how often the conduct occurs, whether the conduct interferes with an employee’s work performance, and whether the conduct is threatening or humiliating.