Bill Introduced to Extend New Jersey Employment Discrimination Protections to Unpaid Interns

On December 5, 2013, the Senate introduced a bill (S3064) seeking to extend legal protections and remedies to unpaid interns by amending three state statutes: the Law Against Discrimination, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act, and the Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act. The legislation appears to respond to a recent Southern District of New York opinion, Wang v. Phoenix Satellite Television US, which held that an unpaid college intern could not bring a sexual harassment lawsuit against her employer because as an intern, she was not an “employee” as recognized under New York State and New York City’s analogous anti-discrimination laws. The bill has been referred to the Senate Labor Committee.