It has been five years since Governor Cuomo signed a bill that modified the New York State Human Rights Law into law. The change was a welcome one for workers who experience workplace discrimination, as the amended version of the NYSHRL better allows workers to vindicate their rights to employment that is free from discrimination and harassment. This reduced evidentiary standard means that New Yorkers who endure discrimination or harassment have a better chance than ever to succeed in a civil lawsuit under the state human rights law. If you have encountered this type of workplace misconduct, you owe it to yourself to speak to a knowledgeable New York employment discrimination lawyer about your situation.
Before the amendment became law in 2019, the NYSHRL said that workers harmed by discrimination or harassment had to prove that the misconduct they went through was either “severe” or “pervasive.” This standard was often difficult for workers to meet. For example, several workers who alleged sexual battery (sometimes multiple batteries) lost claims under federal Title VII (which utilized the same “severe or pervasive” standard the NYSHRL used before the change) because the courts decided these instances did not add up to "severe" enough harassment.
Today, workers using the NYSHRL to pursue justice face a fairer playing field. The law in New York says that workers who allege discrimination or harassment simply must show that the misconduct they endured is illegal – and potentially entitles the victim to recovery – if it subjected the worker to “inferior terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” because of her protected status. A recent discrimination and sexual harassment case from Long Island shows how this new standard can aid a worker’s case.
The victim was a police dispatcher in a Suffolk County town. The dispatcher and a male patrol officer had a three-year romantic relationship that ended in 2009. The victim’s lawsuit alleged that, in the years after the relationship’s end, the patrol officer and other police department employees had stalked her and made inappropriate and malicious threatening comments.
The dispatcher’s complaint also alleged that the harassers had ostracized her and “sought to intimidate her, which has negatively affected her health, job performance, position and status at the [department] and caused her to suffer severe and unwarranted emotional distress which has detrimentally affected [her] health and wellbeing.” The dispatcher was denied opportunities for overtime work, excluded from interviewing prospective “hires and supervisees,” and had her insurance forms not processed, all of which cost her either in terms of earnings or workplace prestige, according to the lawsuit.
'Isolated' Incidents Were Enough to Show Inferior Terms and Conditions
That, the trial court said, was enough to defeat a motion to dismiss made by the defense. While the dispatcher’s allegations might have been insufficient to demonstrate severe or pervasive harassment, she had “a cause of action under [the law’s new] more liberal standard, as her evidentiary submissions and allegations in the complaint demonstrated that her superior officers subjected her to inferior employment conditions as a result of her gender identity, sex, and familial status,” the court said. The court found that the instances of denied overtime, exclusion from interviews, and mishandling of insurance forms were “isolated,” but under the NYSHRL’s new standard, that infrequency did not matter. The dispatcher had sufficiently alleged that she had endured “inferior terms” and conditions of employment as a result of her status. That was sufficient to overcome a dismissal motion.
Here in New York City, the city’s Human Rights Law eliminated the “severe or pervasive” requirement many years ago. Today, whether you are in the city or somewhere else in New York State, you have the opportunity to pursue your harassment or discrimination case without needing to prove severe or pervasive misconduct, a standard that often unfairly favors employers and harassers. To further ensure that it is a “fair fight” when you pursue justice, you need a powerful legal advocate on your side. The experienced New York sexual harassment attorneys at Phillips & Associates are dedicated to being that strong and effective voice for workers in New York City and beyond who have endured harm because of the illegal conduct they experienced at work. To learn more, contact us online or at (866) 229-9441 to set up a free and confidential consultation.