New York NY Civil Rights Law Blog

A young mother who worked as a senior program manager at a marketing company claims she experienced workplace discrimination when her company allegedly forced her resignation after she requested time off for maternity leave. Advocates for pregnant workers say many mothers are forced to deal with similar situations when they inform their employer of their pregnancy.

A 31-year-old mother-to-be informed her workplace about her pregnancy and instead of allowing the working woman to take maternity leave, the company asked the woman to resign from her position. The company informed the woman that she was not protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act because she had worked for the company for only four months. The Family and Medical Leave Act allows certain employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year. The time can be used to care for newborns or to take of sick family members. The FMLA is a federal law and therefore covers eligible working parents in New York.

The mother-to-be left her previous employer for a new position at the company four months earlier and human resources executives told the woman that whether she was sick or pregnant and did not show up to work her absence would be interpreted as a resignation because she had not been with the company for the requisite time period.

Many actresses and actors vie for spots in New York and Hollywood. In New York actors compete to be on Broadway and in Hollywood actors compete for roles in major films. One actress's suit against Amazon and its Internet Movie Database may have revealed a potential age discrimination issue in Hollywood.

Age discrimination is generally defined as treating an applicant or employee less favorably because of age. Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act employers are forbidden from discriminating against people age 40 or older. People under the age of 40 are not protected under the Act but may be protected by state law. Last fall, an actress filed a million-dollar suit against Amazon and Amazon's Internet Movie Database for identifying the woman's age on IMDB's website.

The lawsuit was likely not based on an age discrimination legal theory since Amazon or IMDB were not the actress's potential employer or employer, but the suit raised public awareness on potential age discrimination in television and film industry. Women over the age of 40 account for over 24 percent of the population in the United States, but according to the Screen Actors Guild only 12.5 percent of television and movie roles are filled by actresses over age 40. The proportion of men over age 40 who land roles is equal to proportion in the population.

New York City's police watchdog group, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, is going forward with multiple police misconduct cases involving Occupy protesters and New York City police officers. Although the police watchdog group is going forward with police misconduct cases related to the Occupy protesters, the overall number of complaints against the New York Police Department filed with the group is down in comparison to last year.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board has started 37 police misconduct complaints related to the Occupy Wall Street protests. There has been a total of 44 Occupy-related complaints filed against the New York Police Department, and the allegations involve 78 alleged victims.

Complaints related to Occupy Wall Street involve four types of offenses. The offenses are abuse of authority, force, offensive language and discourtesy. Twenty-nine of the 37 complaints being reviewed by the city's policy watchdog involve allegations that police improperly used force.

Despite the Occupy cases, complaints filed with the city's police watchdog panel dropped over 7 percent in 2011 in comparison to 2010. There were 6.467 complaints in 2010, and in 2011 there were 6,007 complaints. More than 60 percent of the complaints in 2010 were closed before a full investigation was conducted by the board. The Civilian Complaint Review Board corroborated 8 percent of 2010's complaints after a full investigation.