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Earlier this month, YWCA Northern New Jersey (YWCA NNJ) launched a new campaign aimed at educating New Jersey employees about their workplace rights and legal protections.

The “Know Your Employee Rights” initiative includes a toolkit featuring educational videos highlighting workplace violations that disproportionately impact women and people of color. Topics include equal pay, discrimination, harassment and retaliation. A grant from The New Jersey State Bar Foundation funds the video series.

YWCA NNJ said the goal of the initiative is to educate individuals – especially women and nonwhite women – about the workplace protections available to them, their workplace rights, and how to access and assert them.

“These legal issues are vital for individuals who may experience harassment, discrimination, or inequity in the workplace and align with the YWCA NNJ’s mission to eliminate racism and empower women,” the organization said. “We believe we cannot achieve real equity in the workforce until these issues are addressed and navigated.”

According to a 2022 “Views on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” report conducted by Rutgers University, 44% of employed New Jerseyans say they have personally experienced discrimination, YWCA NNJ noted.

Campaign kickoff

An Aug. 8 campaign kickoff event included a press conference and roundtable. Moderated by YWCA NNJ Chief Executive Officer Helen Archontou, the discussion featured several experts, leaders and advocates:

• Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director, The Worker Institute, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
• Debra Lancaster, executive director for the Center for Women and Work, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
• Michele Siekerka, president and CEO, New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA)
• LaTonia Pouncey, president and CEO, TalentMixx Solutions
• Xiomara Guevara, executive vice president/chief operating officer and chief legal officer at Greater Bergen Community Action Inc.

“Supporting women in the workplace is a key focus area for the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, and has been for more than a century,” said Archontou. “Although we’ve seen some very new big changes in the roles of women in the workforce since we opened our doors 100 years ago, the need for us to advocate for gender equity has not changed at all over that time.”

Work to do

Sundeep Iyer, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, gave opening remarks at the campaign kickoff.

“There is an extraordinary amount of work to do, as we’ve seen through some of our enforcement work, but we can’t do any of that work alone,” said Iyer. “The work of protecting the civil rights of all of our residents isn’t just a job for the division on civil rights, it isn’t just a job for the YWCA of Northern New Jersey; it’s a job for employers to work in partnership with us. It’s the responsibility of every employee in the state to know their rights. And that’s why interventions, like the employee rights campaign being run by the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, are so critical important.”

“Our goal for this initiative is to educate individuals, especially women and women of color about their rights in the workplace, workplace protections that are available to them, and their recourse if their workplace rights have been violated,” said Archontou.

More details on the “Know Your Workplace Rights” campaign are available here.

See also:

• Rutgers study highlights NJ’s family leave act worker protection gaps
• Lawmakers shine a light on study of contracting disparity in NJ