Tagged: Workers’ Compensation
New York State recently passed the Paid Family Leave Benefits Law, which is among the strongest and most comprehensive leave statutes in the country. The new law amends the State’s current disability law, and imposes obligations on employers beginning in 2018. Unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), the NY law will provide both protected leave and paid benefits during the leave. The new law covers employers in the for-profit sector, with at least one employee, along with certain other employers in the public and not-for-profit sectors.
On June 19, 2014, in Rodriguez v. Raymours Furniture Company, Inc., the New Jersey Appellate Division upheld the validity of a provision in an employment application form by which the job applicant agreed that, if hired, he or she would bring any employment-related claim within 6 months after the claim arose. Plaintiff alleged he was terminated because of a disability in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) and in retaliation for having filed a workers compensation claim. The Appellate Division held that because the plaintiff brought these claims 9 months after his termination they were barred by the 6-month limitations period in the application form even though they were brought well within the 2-year statute of limitations period otherwise applicable to these types of claims.
The District of New Jersey recently held that a binding arbitration procedure contained in an employee handbook and the corresponding waiver in a signed acknowledgement form were enforceable despite a disclaimer in the handbook declaring the document to be unenforceable as a contract. In Brooks v. Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc., No. 12-CV-2821 (RBK/AMD) (D.N.J. Dec. 20, 2012), the defendant employer moved to dismiss the employee’s complaint and compel arbitration on the grounds that the employer had a binding arbitration procedure in its handbook and the employee executed a waiver of her right to sue the employer in court under two New Jersey statutes.
