At oral arguments before the New Jersey Supreme Court, a former state employee claimed she was fired for telling her husband the details of her sexual harassment complaint, which was allowed under state regulations at the time—that regulation has since been revised, but the plaintiff argued it still impermissibly restricts protected speech.
In an Appellate Division ruling, Usachenok v. State of New Jersey Department of the Treasury, the court rejected the plaintiff’s challenge to the gag order placed on people interviewed for a probe of discrimination charges by state workers. Viktoriya Usachenok was a Department of the Treasury worker who claims she was fired after telling her husband details of a sexual harassment claim she filed against a supervisor. She sought a declaratory judgment that the confidentiality directive in N.J.A.C. 4A:7-3.1 is null and contrary to public policy and the LAD. The appeals court rejected Usachenok’s challenge to the regulation, finding that a request for confidentiality promotes a fair investigatory process that protects both the accuser and the accused, according to the opinion.
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