New York Employment Lawyer Blog

The New York Mets baseball team recently made headlines by hiring as its General Manager and Manager, two individuals who are both over sixty years old. This runs contrary to the current trend in the workplace of "getting younger."

The Mets hired Sandy Alderson, who is 63 as the General Manager, and Terry Collins, who is 61 as the team's on-field Manager. Both have many, many years of experience and have been involved in the game for over thirty years apiece. The preference of experience over youth is something that many organizations have not put an emphasis on in the hiring process.

Despite the Mets hiring two older individuals, age discrimination is something that is very prevalent in the workplace. Schwartz & Perry specializes in representing individuals in all forms of employment discrimination.

Shivana Persad is suing JPMorgan Chase bank for national origin discrimination. Persad is claiming that her boss, who is Guyanese, consistently discriminated against her because she was Trinidadian.

According to Persad, her boss would often discriminate against the Trinidadian employees, calling them “Trinis” and often said that Trinidadians are “lazy” and “nickel-and-dime workers.” She further alleges that Guyanese co-workers received favorable schedules and that the she had to work six-day weeks in order to overcome her boss’ prejudices.

Persad further claims that she was fired after she had complained to Human Resources that she was not paid for the hours she had accumulated for overtime.

A New York City Chef, Julius Jones, is pursuing a discrimination lawsuit against the Roger Smith Hotel for the conduct of another chef who was also employed by the restaurant. Tthe other chef, allegedly put on a white pillow case on his head in an attempt to resemble a Ku Klux Klansman.

The other chef admits to putting on the pillow case, but states that he was attempting to resemble a ghost in the spirit of Halloween season. However, another employee recalled hearing the alleged perpetrator say to Jones: “Remember these days.”

The issues raised in this case reflect the fact that discrimination especially because of race, is very prevalent in the workplace.

Goldman Sachs has settled a pregnancy discrimination law suit filed by a former vice president for pushing her into the "mommy-track" and eventually firing her after she chose to work part-time following her pregnancy.

The lawsuit was filed in March in which the former employee alleged violations of the U.S. Family Medical Leave Act, and gender and pregnancy discrimination. In her complaint she stated that after two years of working at Goldman Sachs she was promoted to vice president of Goldman Sachs University. However, after she took a maternity leave with her first child her opportunity to advancement had vanished.

The former employee claimed in her complaint that once she began working part time, she was transferred to lower positions that made it more difficult for her to advance and to earn more money. She further stated in her complaint that she was demoted, lost her office and subsequently was fired in 2008.

Schwartz and Perry specializes in representing plaintiffs in all forms of employment discrimination. Additional information regarding pregnancy discrimination can be found here.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) recently settled a lawsuit in Federal Court against Guardsmark LLC. The company will pay $52,500 to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC on behalf of Danielle Jones and other female employees of the company.

Guardsmark, citing costumer preference for male security guards allegedly assigned female employees to inconvenient and lower paying security guard posts. This type of discrimination is very prevalent in many industries, such as the labor trades.

In addition to monetary relief, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein also is requiring the company to provide training for its managers and supervisors to prevent further discrimination in all forms.

“This settlement serves as reminder to businesses that a customer’s preference to be staffed or served by workers of a particular gender is never an excuse to engage in illegal sex discrimination,” said EEOC regional attorney Jim Sacher.