The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

At least four state legislatures are working on laws to allow employees to sue their bosses for being jerks. The Los Angeles Times reports that a bill in New Jersey would give an employee the right to seek as much as $25,000 if his employer creates “an abusive work environment.” New York, Vermont, and Washington are looking at similar laws. A Sacramento, California group, California Healthy Workplace Advocates, is trying revive a “sue-the-boss” bill that failed to make it out of committee in 2003.

According to The Times, the bills lacks a good definition of “an abusive work environment.” New Jersey Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, nonetheless, said she is committed to the Healthy Workplace Act because people can’t afford to quit their jobs, so they just have to stay and put up with the poor treatment.

The AFL-CIO has launched a My Bad Boss contest. Last year’s winner was “Dr. X,” a dentist who took 100 out of each employee’s paycheck for every canceled appointment. One of this year’s leaders is a lawyer who calls the office every morning while brushing his teeth and conducts business from the bathroom throughout the day. Another is a boss who took his employees to lunch by inviting them to dine on free samples in a discount warehouse grocery section.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.