Divorced and separated people are protected by marital discrimination law, top state court rules
Employers may not discipline, fire or block the advancement of workers who are divorced or in the process of divorcing, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled.
According to Reuters, the high court ruled 6-0 that New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, which includes a prohibition on discrimination according to marital status, covers discrimination on the basis of divorce or separation as well as on the basis of marriage or singlehood. If the divorce has no effect on job performance, the court said, employers may not act against employees based only on disapproval or concerns.
“An employer may not assume, based on invidious stereotypes, that an employee will be disruptive or ineffective simply because of life decisions such as a marriage or divorce,” wrote Judge Mary Catherine Cuff.
The ruling came in the case of Robert Smith, a certified EMT who was fired as director of operations of the Millville Rescue Squad, a private company that handles emergency and nonemergency rescue services. Smith had an affair with a volunteer worker. In 2006, he confessed to his supervisor that he was separated and starting the divorce process.
Smith’s wife was a co-worker, according to NJ Advance Media, and Smith’s supervisor said he thought there would be an “ugly divorce.” Shortly after Smith’s confession, the Millville Rescue Squad’s board fired Smith, citing poor performance and corporate restructuring.
A trial judge found that Smith was really fired because of management’s concerns that the divorce would be acrimonious—but the judge also said this doesn’t create a marital-status discrimination claim in New Jersey. In 2014, a state appellate court reversed that, saying that being divorced or divorcing is a kind of marital status. It said Smith was fired based on stereotypes about divorce.
The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed. Its decision means Smith’s lawsuit returns to a southern New Jersey court for trial.
