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Employees may find themselves facing arbitration under a wide range of circumstances. New York law allows employers to mandate arbitration in employment contracts, and arbitration is commonly used to resolve labor disputes as well. Employers and employees can also voluntarily agree to arbitrate after a dispute arises instead of taking their dispute to court.
The Equal Pay Act is one of several federal anti-discrimination laws that protect workers in New York and across the country. As its name suggests, the Equal Pay Act applies specifically to pay discrimination, and, generally speaking, it requires equal pay for equal work. However, there are some important limitations of which employees need to be aware, and there are some additional anti-discrimination statutes of which employees need to be aware as well.
If you are (or were) a federal employee and you experienced a prohibited personnel practice (PPP) or have information about a PPP or another prohibited activity, you may be eligible to file a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the OSC is responsible for helping to protect federal employees’ rights and hold federal employers accountable when they violate the law. But the OSC can only help protect your rights if you come forward.
If you have received a severance agreement from your employer, it will be important to ensure that you make an informed decision about whether to sign. It may be in your best interests to negotiate some of the terms of your severance agreement as well. When drafting severance agreements, employers generally put their own best interests first, and while your severance agreement might seem fair on its face, there are some important legal, financial, and practical issues that you may need to consider.
If you are a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace in New York, you have clear legal rights. Both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York State Human Rights Law (SHRL) prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace, and victims of sexual harassment can—and should—take legal action to hold their employers accountable. To take legal action, you will need proof of the sexual harassment that you have experienced on the job.
In a recent article, we discussed steps employees can take to document discrimination in the workplace. While documenting the discrimination you have experienced is critical (along with taking other steps to protect your legal rights), there are also several mistakes you need to be careful to avoid. Making these mistakes could make it more difficult to assert your legal rights effectively, and, in some cases, they could jeopardize your ability to take legal action altogether.