The Labor, Employment and Government Group engages in a diverse and comprehensive labor and employment practice representing management and defendants in any matters concerning the workplace, including the various areas set forth below:
TRADITIONAL LABOR LAW: This involves NLRB related practice, including proceedings before the Board, representing companies in union elections, handling of collective bargaining negotiations, grievance and arbitration matters with the New Jersey State Board of Mediation, FMCS, and AAA; litigation under the Anti-Injunction and Taft Hartley acts; handling of picketing and strike situations, and contract interpretation matters. The group has negotiated and administered collective bargaining agreements in the following industries: compressed gas manufacturing and distribution; dry ice; tool and die; car processing/longshoremen operations; marine operations, rail operations; sheet metal; food warehousing; trucking operations; building maintenance/co-op associations; kitchen contractors; manufacturing, construction, nursing homes, administrative/clerical staffs; and other operations. The group has also negotiated Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) on various construction sites, including the Meadowlands landfill encapsulation, and has also been involved in labor and employment issues concerning the sale and acquisition of businesses/assets, including WARN issues, shutdown agreements, jurisdictional disputes, subcontracting situations, ERISA issues, voluntary retirement programs, and RIFS.
LITIGATION: The group has litigated and defended management in connection with the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination since the mid-1970s, which has included trial practice in areas involving sexual harassment, age, race, religion, national origin, pregnancy, marital status, and disability/handicap discrimination in the state and federal courts. The group has been involved with and achieved successful defense verdicts in a nationally reported case involving alleged claims of sexual harassment on a picket line, and others in cases involving claims of religious discrimination, sexual harassment in a police department, and hostile work environment. The group has successfully represented the New Jersey Attorney General in a case brought by the former Superintendent of the State Police against the State of NJ, the Governor, and the Attorney General, and has represented many public officials in various capacities. It recently successfully defended the New Jersey Department of Corrections regarding well-publicized discrimination and retaliation claims brought by corrections officers. The group has also litigated and defended management in a number of high-profile whistleblower actions under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act. It has also defended a federal class action by the EPVA involving handicap access to the Continental Airlines Arena. It has also defended a number of multi-plaintiff wage and hour overtime actions, including representing two counties in extensive K-9 department litigation. It has recently been involved with a number of litigated matters relating to complex restrictive covenant and duty of loyalty issues.
The group’s extensive litigation practice has had successful results in mediations, settlements, motions and appellate practice. Recently reported state Supreme Court decisions include Gaines v. Bellino, 173 N.J. 301 (2002) (sexual harassment, hostile work environment and workplace policy); Rawitz v. County of Essex, 172 N.J. 357 (2002) (public employment, breach of contract); and Department of Labor v. Pepsi-Cola Co., 170 N.J. 59 (2001) (right of the NJ Department of Labor to require pre-judgment interest on wage and hour determination). Among other matters we handled are LePore v National Tool, 115 N.J. 226 (1989), cert. denied 493 U.S. 954 (1989) (whistleblower, NLRA preemption); Baliko v Stecker, 275 N.J. Super. 182 (App. Div 1994) (sexual harassment, first amendment, NJLAD, jury trial resulting in defense verdict); Franks v Ivy Club, 228 N.J. Super. 40 (App. Div. 1988), reversed 120 N.J. 73 (1990)(sex discrimination/private clubs); Chai v Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., 160 N.J. Super. 176 (App Div 1977), cert. denied 77 N.J. 511 (1977) (interpretation/coverage NJLAD); Hermann v Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. 180 N.J. Super 500 (App. Div. 1982) (election of remedies under the NJLAD); Local 68 v DRBA, 147 N.J. 433 (1997), cert. denied 188 S.Ct.165 (1997) (NJ Constitution, right to organize/bargain by employees).
PUBLIC SECTOR/PERC LABOR LAW: The firm has represented public entities in elections, negotiations, interest arbitration, mediation, and PERC matters. Among them include appellate decisions involving the Delaware River and Bay Authority, a bi-state agency, and collective bargaining negotiations with MEBA regarding the shipboard personnel on the Cape May-Lewes ferry; fire and police negotiations and interest arbitration regarding the City of Camden and its interaction with the NJ Department of Community Affairs; over twenty-five agreements involving the County of Essex; negotiations, contract administration, mediation and arbitration for the counties of Morris and Bergen, the cities of Orange, Jersey City, East Orange, and Irvington, the townships of Verona and Union, and the Board of Education of Paterson.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: The firm handles various matters before the NJ and US Departments of Labor including wage and hour matters, prevailing wage issues, alleged retaliation claims, unemployment and temporary disability matters, whistleblower allegations, ERISA matters, and other compliance issues. The group has been involved in the representation of a major corporation in the largest wage and hour compliance issue ever brought by the New Jersey Department of Labor concerning the applicability of the sales exemption. It also recently handled a major "hot goods" case for a garment industry client in the US Department of Labor in New York City. The group has also been involved in OSHA matters, including counseling regarding inspections and charges, mediation, settlements, and trials. It has also handled discrimination matters before the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, EEOC, New York City Human Rights Commission and New York State Division of Human Rights. The group has also handled a variety of licensure issues before various state licensing boards involving veterinarians, doctors, trainers, and others, and has defended OFCCP audits, and various affirmative action compliance matters involving New Jersey governmental units, and is now addressing the new Executive Order 1 regarding project labor agreements, which it has experience with in other areas.
EMPLOYMENT COMPLIANCE AND COUNSELING, TRAINING, INVESTIGATIONS, AND DRAFTING OF POLICIES:
The group regularly reviews compliance issues and provides legal opinions concerning matters arising under the FMLA and New Jersey Family Leave Act, overtime exemption, e-mail and internet usage, alcohol and drug related questions, other leave questions, legal requirements regarding reasonable accommodations for persons with handicaps/disabilities, RIFS, breaches of employee loyalty or wrongdoing, violence in the workplace, and many other workplace issues. The firm drafts employment handbooks and anti-harassment policies, trains employees, performs investigations within the workplace and deals with a broad range of issues facing our management clients on a daily basis. The group conducts corporate investigations, including investigations of employee allegations of discrimination and harassment. The group firm also handles many severance situations, including the drafting or review of severance agreements.
TRADE SECRET AND RESTRICTIVE COVENANT MATTERS: The firm has handled many situations involving the drafting and interpretation of trade secret, confidentiality, and restrictive covenant agreements. as well as related issues concerning common law duties of loyalty. In this area, all aspects of emergent disputes are analyzed and addressed, including the legality of covenants, the rights among the parties and its effect on related or successor companies. The group has also been involved in the mediation of such disputes.
ADR PRACTICE: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is a burgeoning area in the litigation field. The firm has handled many traditional labor mediations and arbitrations over the years, such that the many recent developments in this area are a natural expansion of practice. The group mediates and arbitrates matters on behalf of its clients in state and federal courts, voluntary submissions, and in matters resulting from mandated arbitration in handbooks and agreements. A number of our members are court appointed and NJ Court Approved Mediators. Also, the group handles NASD arbitrations, AAA, and JAMS-Endispute matters.
CONSTRUCTION RELATED LABOR MATTERS: The group has been involved in a variety of construction issues, and works closely with the firm’s construction group. Representation has included dealings with pre-hire agreements and relationships with the building trades, jurisdictional disputes, picketing issues, secondary boycotts, prevailing wage issues, OSHA matters, discrimination claims, affirmative action issues, wage and hour matters, and project labor agreements.
APPELLATE PRACTICE: As indicated in the litigation area and reported cases discussed above, the firm has a broad range of experience in appellate practice, including a variety of matters in the Appellate Division and Supreme Court of New Jersey and appeals from administrative agency decisions, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and other matters that were the subjects of petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.