Jersey City Sexual Harassment

Workplace Rights Lawyers Representing Jersey City Residents

It is illegal to harass someone due to their sex or gender. Most people think of sexual harassment as solely sexual in nature. However, harassment may include unwelcome romantic advances, as well as offensive remarks about someone's sex or gender. Both the victim and the perpetrator of the harassment may be a man or a woman, and the harassment may even be same sex harassment. If you are a victim of this inappropriate conduct, the experienced Jersey City sexual harassment attorneys at Phillips & Associates may be able to help you recover damages.

Pursuing a Sexual Harassment Claim

Harassment may include a wide range of unwelcome conduct related to sex or gender. It may include requests for sexual favors, jokes, touching, groping, assault, rape, repeated requests for dates, offensive remarks, and innuendoes. There is no prohibition on offhand, isolated remarks. Instead, harassment becomes illegal when it is either so frequent or so severe that it generates a hostile work environment or when it results in adverse employment actions, such as being fired, suspended, demoted, or losing benefits. The harasser may be a supervisor, coworker, client, or customer. The nature of the harasser's relationship to the victim and the actions that are taken by the employer to handle the matter will determine whether a worker may hold their employer liable.

Sexual harassment is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, Title VII only protects employees of employers that have at least 15 employees. It also has caps on damages based on the size of the employer. In many cases, it may be more worthwhile for an employee to sue under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”), which also prohibits sexual harassment. Our sexual harassment lawyers can help Jersey City workers determine which laws should form the basis of a claim.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace is Illegal

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination prohibits all employers, irrespective of their size, from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, and domestic partnership or civil union status. For example, a New Jersey employer may not stand by while an employee is being sexually propositioned or made fun of, or where coworkers insult an employee because he or she is transgender. Similarly, a New Jersey employer may not look the other way if a top-performing supervisor has been accused of touching an employee inappropriately at a Holiday party.

In order for an employer to be liable for an employee's sexual harassment of another employee creating a hostile work environment under the New Jersey law, a plaintiff needs to show that the harassing conduct would not have happened but for the employee's sex/gender, it was so severe or pervasive that it would be enough to make a reasonable person believe that the employment conditions had been altered, and the environment was either hostile or abusive. Also, the employee must show that the Company either knew, or should have known, of the harassment. More importantly, you cannot be retaliated against for filing a complaint of sexual harassment.

Another type of Sexual Harassment is Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment. This is where the benefits of your employment, or your continued employment, is based on your refusal of, or submission to, sexual advances. For example, if your supervisor promises you extra hours if you date him or her, or threatens to demote/fire you if you do not give into his or her demands - that is quid pro quo sexual harassment (whether you give in or not.)

Retain a Sexual Harassment Attorney in Jersey City

Jersey City is the county seat of Hudson County and the largest city in the county. It is a port of entry to the U.S. If you believe that you have been a victim of unlawful conduct in your workplace, the Jersey City sexual harassment lawyers at Phillips & Associates may be able to represent you in a lawsuit for damages. Contact us at (866) 229-9441 or via our online form to set up a free appointment. Our employment lawyers help people in communities, such as Passaic, Bergen, Morris, Essex, Union, Hudson, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth, Mercer, Burlington and Camden Counties.

Managing Partner in New Jersey - Bryan Arce