Phone/Text: 585-967-7707

Your Workplace Rights

 

All employees are entitled to be treated equitably by their employers. My legal practice is focused on protecting your rights as an employee, which includes your right to be paid properly and work in an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. As an employee, you have the right to speak up when you feel your workplace rights have been violated without fear of retaliation from your employer.

Still, employees often feel intimidated by their employers. But often, when employers violate an employee's workplace rights, it is pursuant to an illegal policy or practice that affects many employees. When that is the case, collective and class action lawsuits are powerful tools to correct the illegal workplace policy. Moreover, collective and class action lawsuits offer employees safety in numbers, and help an employee feel confident that they are not alone in the fight for their workplace rights.

I enjoy representing employees and feel privileged to help them vindicate their workplace rights. Take a look below at some of the specific workplace rights I specialize in. Or call me today for a free phone consultation to discuss your unique situation, and I'll help you understand if you have a case and what the merits of that case may be.

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Employees I Represent

 
  • Health Care Workers
  • Restaurant Employees
  • Banquet Employees
  • Professors & Teachers
  • Trades People
  • Engineers
  • Consultants
  • HR Managers
  • Corporate Executives
  • Factory Workers
  • Sales People
  • Government Workers
  • Computer Professionals
  • Operations Managers
  • Administrators
  • And many more....

Employees Represent retaliation lawyer



Employees' Workplace
Rights


Employees' Workplace Rights

The following are examples of workplace rights that employees bring to my attention when seeking my legal advice. Contact me for a free phone consultation to discuss any employment concerns you may have. All consultations are confidential.

Discrimination Issues

Under Federal and New York State laws, an employer cannot favor or deny benefits to any employee based on race, color, ethnicity or national origin, sex, religion, genetic information (including family medical history), age (the law protects workers 40 and older), or immigrant status. Immigrant status laws make it illegal to refuse to hire someone because of an accent or because that person was born in a foreign country. Employers have a duty to verify that every worker hired is authorized to work, but it is illegal to assume that a worker is undocumented just because he or she has a foreign name, speaks with an accent or was born in another country. If you can prove that you have not received workplace benefits based on these factors, discrimination laws may be applicable to your situation.

Harassment Issues

Workplace harassment occurs when an employer (or coworker) targets you with unsolicited, annoying, threatening, alarming or abusive action or words. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual harassment, which is defined by unwelcome sexual advances or taunts that may target your sexual orientation.

Hostile & Unsafe Work Environments

When conduct or speech is repetitively intimidating, abusive or otherwise offensive at the workplace, it can violate your rights as an employee. Your physical safety is also protected under the law, and includes things such as improperly maintained equipment, lack of appropriate inspections, inadequate training, or anything else that may pose imminent danger to you.

Disability Accommodation Requests

Both Federal and New York State law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation for an otherwise qualified individual with a disability to do his or her job, including making facilities accessible, acquiring or modifying equipment, and making relevant adjustments to work schedules.

Pregnancy Related Claims

Family Medical Leave Issues

Employers are required by Federal Law to allow for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave (with job protection) for employees with a newborn baby (including adoption, or foster care placement), serious family illness, or family military leave. Eligibility for unpaid leave is based on the number of hours an employee works, and the number of employees in the company.

Pregnancy Related Claims

You cannot be fired, withheld from a job or promotion, or penalized in any way in the workforce for being pregnant, or for taking reasonable leave during and immediately following a pregnancy. You are entitled to have reasonable accommodation at the workplace during your pregnancy.



Rochester, NY Employment Law Attorney

Your employment rights - including your right to speak up - are protected under the law. Sitting down with a lawyer is a confidential meeting, and there are protections under the law even if you decide to file a complaint against your employer.

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Unpaid Wages and Overtime

Employers routinely fail to pay employees in accordance with the wage and overtime laws. For example, hospitality employers that pay employees less than minimum wage, relying on customer tips to account for the difference, often run afoul of the tip credit notice requirements as well as tip pooling and tip sharing laws. Additionally, some salaried employees may be misclassified when in fact they are legally entitled to overtime wages for any hours over 40 that they’ve worked during a workweek.

Wage and hour laws are also designed to ensure equitable pay between women and men that are doing the same set of tasks and in the same location. The exact jobs of the employees do no have to be identical, but they do need to meet specific legal requirements.

Fired or Laid Off

New York is an at-will employment state, which means you can be fired at any time and for any reason. However, it is still illegal for an employer to fire an employee for discriminatory reasons, in violation of an employment contract, or in retaliation for an employee exercising their workplace rights.

Severance Agreements

Employers often offer a severance package when terminating employment. These usually offer continued compensation for a specified period of time in exchange for your agreement to give up specific rights defined in the severance package.

As an employee, you are usually granted a limited period of time to consider the severance, as well as the ability to negotiate the terms. (Note that the employer also retains the right to revoke the offer, although sometimes a specific amount of time is required before the employer may do so once it has been offered). Always review a severance package carefully in terms of compensation, benefits and insurance, as well as what rights you may be agreeing to give up.

Bonuses and Commission Disputes

Bonuses and commissions make up a large part of some employees' take home pay. Due to the variety of contracts and businesses that may be involved, often the exact amount an employer is required to pay an employee is in dispute – especially when an employee is leaving the company.


Background Checks

Many employers conduct intensive criminal and consumer background checks as part of their hiring process. However, an employer’s use of an applicant's or employee's background information to make an employment decision must comply with federal laws that protect applicants and employees from discrimination. In addition, when employers run background checks through a company in the business of compiling background information, they must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as the municipal laws as they often regulate the use of background check information for employment purposes.

Retaliation & Whistleblower Laws

Your employment rights - including your right to speak up - are protected under the law. Retaliation laws are in place to ensure that any employee that feels their legal rights as an employee have been violated can speak up without fear of losing their position or job simply for questioning the legal validity of what their employer may be doing. In particular, the anti-retaliation provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits employers from retaliating against you just for ensuring that you are paid properly.

Whistleblower laws go one step further, and protect employees that speak up about the conduct of an employer that not only violates their individual rights, but also may endanger public safety, waste tax-payer money, or violate a law that is in place to protect some or all members within a society.

Union & Labor Protections

Some employees have further workplace protections and rights outlined by the labor union to which they belong. Furthermore, all employees have the right under the National Labor Relations Act to organize an effort with other employees to improve working conditions through collective bargaining. The law also protects employees against losing their job for not supporting a union.

JUSTIN CORDELLO, ESQ.

Cordello Law PLLC is dedicated to helping people in the Rochester, New York area understand their legal rights in all areas of labor and employment law, and immigration law.

Contact me today for a confidential phone consultation to discuss your unique legal concerns. I look forward to speaking with you to help determine your best legal strategy.

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CORDELLO LAW PLLC
200 Anderson Ave.
Rochester, NY 14607

  Phone: 585-967-7707

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Disclaimer: I advise against using your employer's computers and email accounts when communicating with me. Email communication with me may not be protected by the attorney-client privilege if sent from your employer's computers or email systems. When communicating by email with me, please use a private email account on a private computer. The use of the Internet or this form for communication with my law firm does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Confidential or time-sensitive information should not be sent through this form.

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