A safe and efficient workplace is essential to best attract, maintain and successfully manage employees. Achieving a hostile-free and productive work environment requires not only successful courtroom litigation, but the application of legal experience and skill in the development of preventative measures designed to effectively head-off potential problems that can lead to litigation.
At Hoagland Longo, our responsibility is to ensure our clients make the best employment decisions possible. To achieve that goal, our Labor and Employment Law Department provides a comprehensive, or "wraparound," approach in rendering effective, trustworthy legal services. We have earned a reputation for success within the various courts and among the many municipal branches of government, private businesses and the insurance communities we serve. Our recognized commitment to excellence, both in and outside the courtroom, has yielded successful, cost-effective results for our clients within the courts of the United States, New Jersey State Courts and the New Jersey Administrative Courts and New Jersey State Agencies.
While necessary, courtroom litigation appearances represent only a small part of the legal services that clients should expect from your attorneys. We recognize that to accommodate an employer's personnel interests, all aspects of the employer/employee relationship must be addressed. It is here that our unique, wraparound, approach is so effective. Practice areas and subjects of representation rendered in the accomplishment of this legally comprehensive approach to the strategic objectives of our clients encompass, but are certainly not limited to:
In 2018, New Jersey legislators introduced companion bills S121 and A1242. The legislation was proposed in the wake of the #MeToo movement and sought to ban non-disclosure agreements arising from sexual harassment allegations. The bills met with substantial approval by New Jersey lawmakers, and this March, Governor Phil Murphy signed the legislation into law as an amendment to New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination.
On February 4th, 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed a law that will increase the minimum wage in New Jersey. The law provides for the minimum wage to eventually rise to $15.00 per hour by 2024 for most New Jersey workers.
On October 29, 2018, the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act (N.J.S.A. 34:11D-1 et seq.) went into effect. This law preempts all local laws regarding paid sick leave. Under the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act, employers must provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked, up to forty hours per benefit year.