YWCA Northern New Jersey Kicks Off Employee Rights Campaign with Virtual Press Conference Featuring Leaders in Civil and Workplace Rights
Initiative Features Toolkit and Educational Videos to Empower Workers
Hackensack, NJ - YWCA Northern New Jersey (YWCA NNJ) has launched a campaign to educate employees in New Jersey about their rights and legal protections in the workplace. ‘Know Your Employee Rights’ kicked off with a virtual press conference on Thursday, August 8th.
The initiative includes a toolkit featuring a series of four succinct educational videos highlighting workplace violations that disproportionately impact women and people of color: equal pay, discrimination, harassment and retaliation. The video series, funded by a grant from The New Jersey State Bar Foundation, details how to recognize and report workplace rights violations.
The campaign kickoff included opening remarks by Sundeep Iyer, Director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, who praised YWCA NNJ for providing the groundbreaking resource and empowering employees in the state to take an active role in protecting their rights.
“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.” Iyer said. “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 critically important.”
“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,” stated Helen Archontou, CEO of YWCA NNJ. “Although we’ve seen some very 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. 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.”
The event, which was recorded for inclusion in the ‘Know Your Employee Rights’ toolkit, featured a roundtable discussion moderated by YWCA NNJ CEO Helen Archontou, with insights from legal experts, business leaders and advocates at the forefront of employee rights policy in New Jersey:
Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina, Executive Director, The Worker Institute, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), Cornell University
Debra Lancaster, Executive Director for the Center for Women and Work, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
Michele N. Siekerka, President and CEO, New Jersey Business, and Industry Association
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.
To learn more about the ‘Know Your Workplace Rights’ campaign, and to view the toolkit and videos, visit https://ywcannj.org/womens-empowerment/.
About YWCA Northern New Jersey
For over a century, YWCA Northern New Jersey has improved the lives of thousands of women, girls, and families and is at the forefront of the fight against gender and racial discrimination. We work to build more just and inclusive communities through programs for women and girls, anti-racism training, and policy advocacy. We operate healingSPACE, Bergen County’s only Sexual Violence Resource Center (hotline number: 201-487-2227) and provide year-round child care, and senior wellness programs. YWCA Northern New Jersey serves Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Passaic counties. To learn more, visit ywcannj.org and follow @ywcannj on social media.
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