Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

Re: harrasment in the work place

You could potentially bring criminal charges against this employee for assault, and/or for battery and for the crime of menacing. If the other employee's conduct is motivated by bias against yoiur ethnicity or against your race or religion, etc., you might be able to get the other employee charged with a HATE crime, iclding harrassment charges.

(I may be able to offer you more specific guidance, if you provide me with more information (including whether or not the other employee's conduct was totally unprovoked by you what you think the other employee's motivation is for harrassing you, and whether that motivation is based on prejudice against your race or ethncitiy or religion),via my e-mail or telephone voicemail (which you can find through my LawGuru Attorney Profile link).

If this is NOT a civil rights case, i.e., if the other employee is NOT harassing you because of your race or ethnicity, etc., then you can sue your employer for NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ion of the employee and for NEGLIGENT RETENTION of that employee. Lawsuits for negligent supervision or negligent retention are based on the employer;s duty to safeguard its employees (and visitors to the workplace and customers and clients) from harm caused by employees which the employer either knows or should have known pose a risk of injury to others.

(You could also sue that EMPLOYEE for assault and battery, but since (I assume) you have not been physically harmed, I am not sure that you could recover monetary damages worth your while. I urge you to get a SECOND OPINION from another attorney on this issue. )

If the other employee's harrassment of you is motivated by the other employee's prejudice or bigotry against your memebership in a protected class under civil rights law, e.g., race or ethnicity or religion, then the lawsuits I mentioned above could be

PRE-EMPTED by applicable federal and state and city laws, and you would have to seek remedial action under applicable federal and/or state and/or city civil rights laws such as

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (federal law).