National Origin Discrimination

The law in both New Jersey and New York prohibits employers from engaging in discrimination based on national origin. In other words, it is a violation of your employment law rights if your company treats you worse based on the country in which you were born.  At Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C., our employment lawyers will work hard to protect your workplace rights.

National origin discrimination can take many forms. For example, it can include negative decisions relating to being hired, fired, promoted, or demoted if the decision was based on the nation in which you were born.

Similarly, there can be many different reasons why a supervisor might commit national origin discrimination. For instance, sometime it can be the result of current or historical tensions between the country in which you were born and the country in which your supervisor, boss or the owner of your company was born. Other times, it can be due to cultural differences. Likewise, sometimes national origin discrimination is based on prejudices, unfair stereotypes, or another bias against people who were born in a particular country or region.

None of these forms of discrimination should be a basis for employment decisions. Fortunately, they all violate the law in New Jersey and New York.  If you have experienced workplace discrimination, our New Jersey national origin discrimination attorneys can help.

In addition to forbidding national origin discrimination, New Jersey and New York law both prohibit ancestry discrimination. As a result, if you work in New Jersey or New York it is a violation of your employment law rights for your employer to treat you less favorably because of the country where your parents, grandparents or other ancestors were born, whether or not you ever personally lived there.

Similarly, if you have been the victim of national origin in your workplace, then you also may have experienced discrimination based on your race, color or religion since those claims often occur together. You can read more about these related claims on our race discrimination, religious discrimination and color discrimination pages.

If you have experienced any form of unlawful discrimination at your job, then please feel free to call us at (201) 777-2250 to schedule an appointment with one of our New Jersey national origin discrimination lawyers.

Similarly, the law in both New Jersey and New York prohibit employers from harassing an employee based on his or her national origin. To be actionable, the pattern of harassment has to be so severe or frequent that it is comparable to a change in the terms or conditions of your employment. In other words, it has to have created a hostile work environment.

If you have been severely or frequently teased, insulted, mocked, threatened or otherwise mistreated because of the country in which you were born, then there is a good chance you have an harassment claim.

If you have been fired, wrongfully terminated, laid off, demoted, passed up for a promotion, harassed, or experienced another form of discrimination based on your national origin, then your employment law rights may have been violated. We welcome you to call our employment law firm at (201) 777-2250, or to contact us online to schedule a consultation with one of our experienced New Jersey national origin discrimination attorneys. 

Our main office is in Bergen County, at 135 Chestnut Ridge Road, Suite 230, in Montvale, New Jersey. We also offer remote consultations by Zoom and telephone.

If you want to learn more, you may be interested in reading our article: EEOC Issues New National Origin Guidelines.

We also recommend you visit our New Jersey Employment Law Blog, where you can explore our articles about employment law news and developments.