New York Employment Attorney Blog — Published by New York Employment Lawyers

May 8, 2019

New York City Street Art Projects Take on Anti-Black Racism and Gender-Based Harassment

New York City has taken many actions to combat discrimination and harassment in the workplace. These actions are not limited to legislation, such as the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), or investigations by the city’s Commissioner on Human Rights (CHR). In 2018, the CHR named Brooklyn-based street artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh as its first Public Artist in Residence (PAIR). The program partners city agencies with artists “to address pressing civic issues through creative practice.” Fazlalizadeh unveiled a mural, entitled Respecting Black Women and Girls in St. Albans, in Daniel M. O’Connell Playground in Queens on April 12, 2019. The mural addresses experiences of “the daily indignities of anti-Black racism and sexism.”

New York City has officially declared, through the NYCHRL, that “bias-related violence or harassment…threaten the rights and proper privileges of [the city’s] inhabitants.” N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-101. The NYCHRL further states “that gender-based harassment threatens the terms, conditions and privileges of employment.” Id. In most situations, the NYCHRL only applies to employers with four or more employers, but any employer, regardless of size, could be liable for gender-based harassment. See id. at § 8-102.

The NYCHRL prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and multiple other factors. Id. at § 8-107(1)(a). “Discrimination” in this context can include workplace harassment. The statute also prohibits any “person,” which may include both individuals and businesses, from engaging in “discriminatory harassment” based on any protected category. This is broadly defined as knowingly using or threatening force to intimidate a person or interfere with their exercise of any legal right or privilege. Id. at § 8-603.
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May 1, 2019

Court Upholds Largest-Ever Civil Penalty in New York City Sexual Harassment Case

by Phillips & Associates

Employees in New York City who have experienced sexual harassment have several options for asserting claims and seeking damages. A New York City sexual harassment attorney with knowledge of the city’s legal system can help you determine the best route for your case. In 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (CHR) ordered an employer to pay the maximum possible civil penalty allowed by the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL)—$250,000—for the first time since the law’s enactment. A state court affirmed the order in Automatic Meter Reading Corp. v New York City (“AMRC”), 2019 NY Slip Op 50464(U) (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. Cty., Feb. 28, 2019).

Sexual harassment is considered a form of unlawful sex discrimination in two situations, known as quid pro quo sexual harassment and hostile work environment. The U.S. Supreme Court first recognized sexual harassment as a violation of federal antidiscrimination law in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986). The court held that the allegedly harassing conduct must be “severe or pervasive” enough to impact the claimant’s ability to perform their job. Id. at 67. State law in New York has adopted a similar standard.

New York City courts do not view the NYCHRL’s “standard for sexual harassment violations [as] a carbon copy of the federal and state standard.”, see also N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-130(a). A complainant asserting a claim under the NYCHRL does not have to prove harassment that meets the federal “severe or pervasive” standard. Instead, they need only prove that they were “treated less well than other employees” because of their gender, and that the allegedly harassing conduct was “more than non-actionable petty slights and minor inconveniences.”
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May 1, 2019

New York City Council Amends Law to Prohibit Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual and Reproductive Health Decisions

by Phillips & Associates

The New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) is one of country’s the most comprehensive laws dealing with discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and other areas. On May 20, 2019, a new law will go into effect that adds “sexual and reproductive health decisions” to the law’s list of protected categories. Some employers have fought against legal requirements involving matters like contraception in recent years. Similar arguments have appeared in support of employers who terminate, demote, or otherwise penalize employees for some of the most private acts in which people engage, or some of the most personal decisions that people can make.

The NYCHRL already prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of factors like gender, marital or partnership status, and sexual orientation. N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107(1)(a). The statute defines “gender” to include “actual or perceived” characteristics, including gender identity and gender expression. Id. at § 8-102. This provides express protection against discrimination based on transgender status, which is missing in federal law.

Existing law may apply to some adverse employment actions arguably based on “sexual and reproductive health decisions.” The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit alleging sex discrimination under federal, state, and New York City law. The plaintiff became pregnant before getting married and returned from her honeymoon “visibly pregnant.” She alleged that her employer fired her because it “disapprove[d] of [her] pre-marital pregnancy.”
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May 1, 2019

Is Workplace Bullying Illegal in New York City?

by Phillips & Associates

Workplace harassment violates employment antidiscrimination law when it is based on a protected category, such as sex, race, or religion. This does not encompass the full range of hostile or abusive treatment that workers may encounter. A New York City employment discrimination lawyer must be able to identify a protected category under laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in order to bring a claim based on workplace bullying. State legislators in New York have introduced a bill intended to assist victims of workplace bullying, known as the Healthy Workplace Bill (HWB). The bill has not passed in any state as of April 2019, although a few states have passed laws that address workplace bullying to some extent.

What Is Bullying?

No single legal definition of “bullying” exists in the context of the workplace. The Workplace Bullying Institute, which researches the phenomenon and advocates for measures like the HWB, defines it as “abusive conduct” that “[t]hreaten[s], humiliat[es], or intimidate[s]” a person or prevents them from getting their work done through “interference” or “sabotage.” This is similar to the legal definition of a hostile work environment by agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Antidiscrimination Law and Bullying

Whether laws like Title VII and the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) apply to workplace bullying depends on the basis for the alleged abusive actions. In a landmark decision recognizing same-sex sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII, Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted that “Title VII does not prohibit all verbal or physical harassment in the workplace.” Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 80 (1998). He further stated that Title VII is not “a general civility code for the American workplace.” Id.
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April 30, 2019

Understanding Paid Family Leave in New York

by Phillips & Associates

The United States is one of the only countries in the world with no provisions for paid family leave at the national level. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides for unpaid leave nationwide, but it only applies to qualifying employees of covered employers. New York is one of only a handful of states or territories in the U.S. to have enacted laws requiring paid family leave. When New York’s Paid Family Leave Act (PFLA) took effect in 2018, this state joined California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The District of Columbia and the State of Washington have also enacted paid family leave laws, which are scheduled to take effect in 2020. New York City employment attorneys may be accustomed to handling claims of discrimination and retaliation under the FMLA. The PFLA also contains provisions protecting employees who exercise their rights to paid leave.

“Family leave” generally refers to time away from work to care for a newborn or newly-adopted child, to care for a family member with a serious illness or injury, and to provide certain other forms of care for family members. Under laws mandating family leave, employers must hold a person’s job for the approved leave period, and they typically must continue to provide benefits like health insurance. Employers are prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against an employee who uses earned leave time.

Since the FMLA does not require employers to pay their employees while they are on leave, the statute does not have to address issues of funding. A common objection to mandatory paid family leave is that it is unfair to employers to require them to pay employees for time when they are not working. The PFLA makes paid family leave part of the state’s disability insurance program, which is governed by the New York Workers’ Compensation Law. Paid family leave in New York is therefore only available to employees who are eligible for benefits from the state insurance fund. See N.Y. Work. Comp. L. § 76(2).
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April 30, 2019

What Laws Protect Employees Against Discrimination in New York City

by Phillips & Associates

Employees in New York City are protected from unlawful discrimination in the workplace by laws at the local, state, and federal level. The city’s anti discrimination statute is one of the most comprehensive and expansive in the nation, but New York City discrimination attorneys must carefully evaluate each case of alleged discrimination to determine which law best applies. In order to understand what laws protect employees against discrimination in New York City, it is important to understand how these laws apply their protections.

Protected Categories in Anti Discrimination Law

In one sense, employers discriminate all the time, meaning that they make decisions that affect some employees differently than others. Discrimination on the basis of factors like job performance, seniority, or experience is not considered unlawful. When an employer discriminates on the basis of a factor like race, sex, or religion, that is a different story.

Anti discrimination laws identify categories that are protected against employment discrimination. Court decisions may interpret these laws to provide further detail about prohibited workplace practices. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, ruled more than thirty years ago that the prohibition on sex discrimination found in federal law applies to sexual harassment in the workplace. Some federal courts have held that sex discrimination also includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Other courts have reached opposite conclusions.
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April 29, 2019

New York State Law Now Prohibits Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Gender Expression

by Phillips & Associates

The laws of New York state have protected workers from discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity and gender expression since 2016, thanks to regulations issued by the state’s Division of Human Rights (DHR). New York City’s antidiscrimination law expressly identifies discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression as a form of sex discrimination. It is one of the few laws in the nation to address the issue in unambiguous terms. The New York Legislature passed S1047/A747, known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), on January 15. The governor signed it into law on January 25. The bill amends the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) to include gender identity and expression as a distinct protected category in employment, education, housing, and use of public accommodations.

The New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) prohibits discrimination in employment and other areas on the basis of gender and defines “gender” to include “actual or perceived…gender-related characteristic[s], regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth.” N.Y.C. Admin. Code §§ 8-102, 8-107(1)(a). This includes gender identity and expression. At the state level, the DHR exercised its authority under the NYSHRL to “promulgate…suitable rules and regulations to carry out the [statute’s] provisions” in late 2015. N.Y. Exec. L. § 295(5). It issued regulations, which took effect in January 2016, adding “gender identity and the status of being transgender” to the NYSHRL’s definition of “sex.” 9 N.Y.C.R.R. § 466.13(c), N.Y. Exec. L. § 296(1)(a). The statute’s prohibition on discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex therefore also applies to gender identity.

GENDA amends multiple sections of the NYSHRL to add “gender identity or expression” as a protected category on equal footing with sex, race, age, religion, disability, and others. It defines the term as any “identity, appearance, behavior, expression, or other gender-related characteristic,” whether “actual or perceived,” and “regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth.” S1047/A747 at § 3. This includes transgender status, but also other gender identities or forms of gender expression. GENDA also adds gender identity or expression to the Penal Law section defining hate crimes.
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April 18, 2019

Is Workplace Harassment Illegal in New York?

by Phillips & Associates

Workplace harassment is almost always a nuisance. It is not necessarily always illegal under laws like the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL). Harassment only violates the law when it is based on a protected category like race or sex, and when it directly impacts a person’s employment or the quality of the work environment. When assessing whether harassment crosses the line between a nuisance and an unlawful employment practice, New York City discrimination attorneys must carefully examine the circumstances of each case.

What Is Harassment?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces federal antidiscrimination laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, defines harassment as “unwelcome conduct that is based on” a protected category. It states that harassment based on one or more of these categories becomes unlawful in two situations:
1. Quid pro quo harassment: The complainant must “endur[e] the offensive conduct” as “a condition of continued employment”; or
2. Hostile work environment: The allegedly harassing conduct is so “severe or pervasive” that it “create[s] a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.”

If the alleged harasser is a supervisor with authority over the complainant’s employment, the employer may be held liable even if management did not know about the conduct. See Vance v. Ball State University, 570 U.S. 421 (2013). If the alleged harasser is a co-worker, customer, or other individual, the complainant must demonstrate that the employer knew about the harassment and failed to remedy it.
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April 18, 2019

New York State Releases Guidelines for New Sexual Harassment Laws

by Phillips & Associates

A budget bill passed by the New York State Legislature in 2018, S. 7507/A. 9507, added several protections against sexual harassment for workers throughout the state. Part KK, Subpart E of the bill required the state to produce a “a model sexual harassment prevention guidance document and sexual harassment prevention policy” and “a model sexual harassment prevention training program.” The state issued these documents in November 2018. The bill requires employers to adopt the state’s model policy and use its model training program, or to develop their own policies and programs that “equal or exceed the minimum standards” established by the state. New York City passed a law in 2018, Local Law 96, that also requires employers to provide sexual harassment training.

The New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and other factors. N.Y. Exec. L. § 296(1)(a). The New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) contains similar prohibitions, as well as express prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. At the federal level, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, but does not specifically mention sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Court decisions have held that sexual harassment constitutes sex discrimination under all of these statutes.

The state released a document entitled “Sexual Harassment Policy for All Employers in New York State” in November 2018. This satisfies the state’s obligation under Part KK, Subpart E of the budget bill. The model policy states that sexual harassment may violate the NYSHRL when it is based on an individual’s actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. It provides procedures for reporting sexual harassment. It identifies supervisors’ responsibilities when a report is made, and outlines how investigations should proceed.
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April 18, 2019

Understanding Wrongful Termination in New York

by Phillips & Associates

An individual may be able to bring a claim for wrongful termination against their now-former employer. New York law generally allows employers to fire employees for any reason that is not discriminatory or retaliatory. Proving wrongful termination usually requires evidence that the employer breached a contractual obligation, or that the termination violated an employment statute. When New York employment attorneys bring a claim for wrongful termination, it is often in combination with claims for discrimination or other violations of city, state, or federal law.

At-Will Employment

Employer-employee relationships in New York are considered to be “at-will employment,” unless an employment contract states otherwise. “At-will employment” allows the employer to terminate the employment arrangement at any time and for any reason, or for no reason at all, provided that the termination is not otherwise unlawful. It also allows the employee to quit at any time.

Lawful reasons for firing an at-will employee include:
– Downsizing;
– Performance issues;
– Misconduct; or
– Conflict of personalities.