According to this article from Law.com, eleven states, New Jersey among them, are considering laws that would give employees the right to sue their employers for damages resulting from bullying or abuse by their bosses. Employees usually can sue only for things like unlawful discrimination. The new laws, if enacted, have the potential to implicate a much wider range of workplace conduct.
New Jersey already gives employees a limited common-law right to sue for workplace abuse through the tort of "intentional infliction of emotional distress." While it is frequently invoked by plaintiffs in employment litigations, they seldom succeed because of the egregiousness of the conduct that must be proved.
I will not comment on the wisdom of the proposed laws (at least for now). But think about the potential impact on employers in light of the survey cited in the article. Forty-four percent (44%)(!!!) of employees polled said that they have a supervisor or manager whom they consider to be abusive. That's an astonishing figure, and it's hard to tell whether it says more about the bosses or the employees.
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