Layoffs, reductions in force and restructurings that result in the elimination of positions seem to be more the rule than the exception these days.
Many New Yorkers and New Jersey residents probably work in businesses that are now frequently laying off small numbers of employees on an ongoing basis instead of resorting to larger, headline-grabbing job cuts.
On the surface, these rolling layoffs may seem like a fact of life in the modern workplace against which a worker who gets let go can do little.
In fact, though, federal and state anti-discrimination laws apply to layoffs just as they do to other employer behavior.
A flagrant example of an illegal layoff would be for an employer to deliberately target employees of a certain ethnicity or to cut the positions of those who have spoken up about having a more racially diverse workplace.
Most employers know better than to do such things, at least in a way that can be detected.
However, the law also prohibits reductions in force that disproportionately impact employees in a protected class, including race.
For example, even if the employer has objective layoff criteria that have nothing to do with race, it can still be illegal if the layoff results in 85 percent of those let go being, say, of Korean heritage when those of Korean heritage only account for 10 percent of that business’s staff. In these circumstances, a business should consider adjusting their criteria.
Employees in New Jersey and New York may have other protections against layoffs as well.
Those who are facing a layoff may have legal options
A person who gets the hard news that their job will end does not just have to accept that as part of the modern workplace. Even if they get offered a severance package, they should not automatically agree to walk away. They may have legal options available to them to get additional compensation.