2014 Workplace Bullying Awareness Conference
Speakers & Topics
1st Annual National Workplace Bullying Coalition
Workplace Bullying Awareness Conference
Workplace Bullying: Seeking Solutions
Coming together to find solutions that will create respectful workplaces
Friday, April 4, 2014
Rutgers School of Law, 123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102
Newark, NJ
Special Video Welcome from Congressman Mike Honda
Chair, Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus
Keynote Speakers
What is Workplace Bullying?
Business & Target Solutions
The Need for Law
To Address
Workplace Bullying
NJ Healthy Workplace Act
Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR
Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, is the President of Civility Partners, a training and consulting firm focused on helping organizations build positive workplace cultures. Her book, BACK OFF! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, was hailed as the “most comprehensive and valuable handbook on the topic” by international leadership and business guru Ken Blanchard. Since 2004 she has published several articles, and appeared in the media as an expert in such places as USA Today, MSNBC, Inc. Magazine, NBC, ABC and FOX. Catherine has presented programs both nationally and internationally, including the Association for Conflict Resolution, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA), Project Management Institute (PMI), Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), International Public Management Association, and the International Association for Workplace Bullying & Harassment.
NJ State Senator Linda Greenstein
NJ State Senator Linda Greenstein is the sponsor of the Healthy Workplace Act S280. Senator Greenstein is the Assistant Majority Leader of the State Senate. She is the Vice Chairwoman of the Senate's Environment and Education Committee and the Law and Public Safety Committee. Senator Greenstein also sits on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
Kevin Costello, Esq. Kevin Costello concentrates his state-wide employment rights, school harassment rights and civil rights practice exclusively on behalf of working people of all economic strata and their families. Kevin is Certified by the Supreme Court as a Civil Trial Attorney. He is an officer of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice, as well as the Chair for the Employment and Labor section of that body and for the “Boardwalk Seminar” and “Meadowlands Seminar” Employment programs. He has also testified before Senate and Assembly Committees in support of Employment and Civil Rights legislation.
Additional Featured Speakers & Panelists
Moderator: Jerry Carbo, Esq., Associate Professor of Management at the Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University, PA. He has written on the topic of workplace bullying legislation.
Moderator: Hon. Stephen Tuber, NJ Workers' Compensation Judge (retired) and past presenter at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs.
Labor & Community Advocates:
Working on the Front Lines
Debra Davis, Council of New Jersey State College Locals, AFT AFL-CIO
"Contract language and investigating claims"
Gail Richardson, EVP, CWA Local 1036
"Workplace bullying training workshops and support groups"
Lauren Larkin, Ridgefield Anti-Bullying Commission
"Bully Free Zone includes NJ's first public ordinance against workplace bullying"
Legal Panel:
Workers' Compensation & Alternatives to Legislation
Linda G. Harvey, Esq.
"ADR and other internal solutions for businesses"
Andrew Kinsey, Esq.
"While the proposed new law is well intentioned, it is not advisable from a legal, business or practical perspective"
John D. Kovac, Esq.
"Workers’ Compensation stress claims as a remedy for workplace bullying"
Debra Davis is a Staff Representative with the Council of New Jersey College Locals, AFT, AFL-CIO, which represents 9,200 faculty, adjunct faculty, librarians and professional staff at New Jersey’s nine State Colleges and Universities. She has represented the Council’s membership for thirteen years in negotiations with the State, in all grievance and arbitration cases and developed a workshop for members on bullying in the workplace. She spends a great deal of her time mediating disputes and conflicts in the workplace outside the formal grievance process.
Gail Richardson, MSW, is the Executive Vice President of CWA Local 1036, representing 8000 mostly public employees. She has over 25 years of labor union experience and enjoys a well established record of successful negotiations and mediations in the workplace. Gail earned her Masters in Social Policy Analysis from Rutgers University. She trained in mediation and presented at the Pan European Mediation Conference in Belfast NI. She teaches for the Rutgers Union Leadership Academy as well as the UALE NE Regional Union Women’s Summer School.
Lauren Larkin is a life long resident of Ridgefield and was appointed to Ridgefield’s Anti-Bullying Committee in January 2013. Ridgefield’s Anti-Bullying Committee was formed to help build a climate in the community that fosters kindness and respect. She is the Facebook administrator for Ridgefield’s Anti-Bullying Committee where she regularly posts statistics, articles and various tools to help put an end to bullying. She is an active member of the Ridgefield community and has served on various committees over the years.
Linda G. Harvey, Esq., is a partner in the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Departments of Greenberg Dauber Epstein & Tucker, PC located in Newark, NJ. She has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation and was identified as a “Top Attorney” in New York Magazine, December 2009. She handles employment counseling, employment investigations and in-house discrimination training for businesses. She will address how to avoid a culture of workplace bullying.
Andrew Kinsey, Esq., a partner at Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Fader LLC with offices in NJ and PA, chairs the labor and employment group representing management. He has signifiant experience mediating and litigating employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful discharge, defamation and other employment-related cases before federal and state courts at both the trial and appellate levels. He will speak on why it is unnecessary to have anti-workplace bullying legislation and how businesses can best handle such issues.
John D. Kovac, Esq., a solo practitioner from New Brunswick, NJ is an experienced lawyer who has represented petitioners in trials involving workplace bullying in the Workers’ Compensation Court. He is the author of a textbook on Workers’ Compensation published by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education for use by attorneys. He will speak on the pros and cons of prosecuting workplace bullying through the Workers’ Compensation Court.
News Coverage
Welcome to the 18th Century
by Alan A. Cavaiola, Ph.D.
Since my last blog post I have been to two recent conferences which were quite an eye-opener. The first conference was Workplace Bullying: Seeking Solutions, which was held at the Rutgers Law Center in Newark, New Jersey on April 4, 2014 and was sponsored by the National Workplace Bullying Coalition. The second conference was the 11th Annual Conference of the European Association of Occupational Health Psychology (EAOHP),which took place in London from April 14 to April 16th, where I presented a paper on differentiation and work stress and work satisfaction. This research was based on a study that Dr. Neil Lavender and I did (along with Callandra Peters and Nadya Hamdan) looking at how enmeshment with one’s job correlated with higher levels of stress and lower work satisfaction. There were several presentations on workplace bullying at the EAOHP conference.
What I learned at both conferences was how far behind the United States is when it comes to having effective workplace laws pertaining to bullying and harassment. Many European countries have had effective laws in place for decades and the results have been positive in terms of promoting civility in the workplace. I must say, I was shocked to hear that the United States lacks any laws in this area. Granted the U.S. does have what were referred to as LAD laws (Laws Against Discrimination) which provides legal recourse to those employees who are discriminated against (in hiring, promotions, pay etc) on the basis of gender, religion, race, ethnicity and age. In spite of these laws we know that abuses still occur as evidenced by the pay differential where men earn consistently more than women for the same work. Currently New Jersey State Senator Linda Greenstein has proposed anti-bullying legislation which would be the first of its kind in New Jersey and the first of its kind nationally. Although such a law is long overdue and would help to bring New Jersey into the 21st century and in line with European countries who have had such legislation in place for some time now there have been major roadblocks in getting this legislation passed. When asked who opposes such laws, Greenstein replied that the push back is coming from corporations who fear they will be open to litigation from employees who claim to have been bullied, harassed or victims of a hostile workplace environment.... [Read the rest of the article]
Our Sponsors
American Bar Foundation
Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of NJ
Association of Black Women Lawyers of NJ
Aurora Foundation of Southern Arizona
Council of NJ State College Locals, AFT AFL-CIO
CourtCall LLC
CWA Local 1036
Diversity Committee of the NJ State Bar Association
Garden State Equality
Harrisburg Central Labor Council
Hon. Joan Churchill, Immediate Past President of National Assoc. of Women Judges
The Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York
Montclair State University, Federation of Teacher-AFT Local 1904
Montclair State University - Presidents’ Commission on Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity & Diversity
NJ Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention
NJ Asian American Law Enforcement Officers Assoc.
OCA NJ
PSE&G Foundation
Rotary International District 7510 representing 42 Rotary Clubs in NJ - Capital District
Rutgers School of Law - Newark
Somerset County Cultural Diversity Coalition
South Asian Bar Association
Student Organizations: Rutgers Labor and Employment Law Society and Asian Pacific American Law Students Association
Working Families United for New Jersey