My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: New Jersey
hi - we live in nj, my husband worked for a small biz. last week he asked for a raise, had been employed 19 years and no raise in over 2 years. they had asked him to provide documentation stating why he "deserved" a raise. Along with a job description (which he provided twice to the owners in the past 8 months). He was the company top performer, but was not compensated as such, and led the company to year after year of record sales.. They are small biz so they had no corp policies on annual reviews, nor do they ask other employees for this documentation when they ask for a review. He put together the un-guided, un-structured review document that outlined all of his accomplishments as they relate to his job functions in detail with goals and numbers showing where he surpassed his sales growth goal. He sent the document to the owners and then in return was asked for additional documentation the following week, a detailed outline of what compensation he was looking for (in the original convo they verbally offered him a car in lieu of cash raise) a list of exceeded expectations, met expectations and areas of improvement, AND a job description (?? which he, yes, he, had already written for his employers 8 months prior) He obliged by putting together the necessary documentation.He scheduled the second meeting with the owners to review the additional information they requested (my husband was Gen Mgr of business, 2nd in charge) and the day he walked in for the meeting when he was scheduled to begin work, he was terminated, "position eliminated". The owners told the entire company they were laying him off before he came into the office and before he was even notified. they then provided him with a severance paperwork package that advised he would not be permitted to collect unemployment if he signed (verbiage was NOT severance in lieu of notice). Do you know if this is something we should speak with a lawyer about? It seems rather coincidental that they were pushing him towards a car and maybe a small cash raise next year the week prior and then decided the company was in such bad financial standing that they eliminated his position? Then the following day (yesterday) they promoted another worked in the office to a full time employee and gave her a new position. This just doesnt seem right.
Any direction would be appreciated, I want to contact a lawyer but I am not certain there are laws being broken here. I come from a very large corporate company and these owners would have been fired with the crap they pulled, violating HR policy after HR policy...
thanks!!

