Law Offices of Lauren Goldberg, PLLC

Protecting your Civil Rights at the WorkplaceNew York Employment Law Firm, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, Minimum Wage and Overtime Claims, Wrongful Termination, Retaliation, Employment Lawyer

Areas of Focus

Sexual Harassment:

Sexual harassment claims take two different forms. 

  1. The first situation is where the employee experiences some adverse employment action as a result of not submitting to an employer’s sexual advances.  This type of harassment is often referred to as “quid pro quo” which stands for “this for that.”  For instance, if a manager tells an employee that she will get a promotion only if she accepts his sexual advances, and then does not give her a promotion when she declines, this is sexual harassment. 

  2. The second situation is where there is a ‘hostile work environment.’ In order to have a successful claim for hostile work environment, the harassment must meet two criteria:

    1. It must be subjectively abusive to the person(s) affected and

    2. It must be objectively severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment, that a reasonable person would find abusive

    To determine whether these standards have been met, there are various factors that will be evaluated.  Some factors include:

    1. frequency of the conduct,

    2. severity of the conduct,

    3. whether the conduct interfered with the employee’s work performance and

    4. whether the harasser was a supervisor

Discrimination:

Federal laws prohibit employment discrimination based on various protected classes such as race, age, color, religion, sex, disability and national origin.  New York State also prohibits discrimination based on these factors as well as sexual orientation and marital status.  Discrimination claims take two different forms:

  1. Disparate treatment:  This situation occurs where an individual is being treated differently based on a protected class, like race or sex.   

  2. Disparate impact:  These cases arise in situations where the company has certain practices or policies that adversely affect a protected class. 

Two related discrimination claims are retaliation and wrongful termination.  If an employer fires an employee for making a formal or informal complaint about any discriminatory practice, the employee may have a claim for wrongful termination.  If the employee experiences any adverse action for reporting discriminatory behavior, the employee may have a claim for retaliation. 

Employment Contracts and Severance Agreements:

Employment contracts often raise many issues impacting both employers and employees.  For example, Non-Compete clauses can be used as an effective mechanism for employers to discourage employees from leaving for competitors.  However, employees may have a right to challenge the validity of Non-Compete clauses. 

Breach of Contract issues are also common and pose important legal consequences for employers and employees.  Both parties should consider consulting an employment attorney to determine potential liability and possible claims. 

Severance Agreements normally require employees to waive their rights to sue their former employers in exchange for some amount of money.  Before you sign such an agreement, you should consider the following points:

  1. Severance Agreements can be negotiable.  Although the typical severance agreement is drafted by the employer, the employer has an interest in having former employees leave amicably.   

  1. You may not be aware of the potential claims that you are waiving.  An important rationale for employers offering severance packages is to mitigate the risk of future lawsuits.  An employee with a potentially strong claim against the company is in a good position to negotiate a better severance agreement.

Minimum Wage & Overtime Claims:

The Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA) guarantees that most employees be paid a minimum wage.  Currently, the minimum wage is $7.25/per hour.  New York State also has minimum wage laws that require most employees to receive $7.15/per hour.

In cases where an employee is protected by both state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher rate.  The FLSA also guarantees that employees who are entitled to its protection be paid overtime after they have worked 40 hours in any work week.  Overtime is required to be one and a half times the normal hourly rate.   

There are certain classifications of people who are exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA.  The list of exempted employees is complex, however, the most commonly applied exemption is the 'white collar exemption' which includes executive, administrative and professional employees.