We filed a race, ethnicity and retaliation discrimination lawsuit filed against Matonee Inc., the parent company of Aptos Labs in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hudson County.

Matonee operates Aptos Labs, a blockchain technology company located at 735 Emerson St, Palo Alto, California.

The Plaintiff is of Egyptian origin and a Muslim. He worked remotely from his home in New Jersey for Aptos Labs.   As set forth in the Complaint filed in court, the plaintiff alleged that in late 2023 several of his Jewish co-workers made certain comments in a post on Aptos slack channel seeking donations for the Israel Defense Force following the 2023 Hamas’ attack on Israel which he deemed dehumanizing and racists towards Muslims. The Plaintiff complained to management about these posts and was advised that all employees have a right to political expression.

The Plaintiff then made a similar post on Aptos slack channel seeking donations to support the people in Gaza during the war, but, according to the plaintiff, his post was met with  backlash from his Jewish co-workers

Subsequently, Aptos’ chief technology officer requested that both the plaintiff and his Jewish co-workers not engage in any further discussions on the Slack channel relating to the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict. However, the Jewish employees continued to post on the conflict, while plaintiff did not.

Later, several Jewish employees of Aptos travelled to Israel to connect with individuals for possible employment with Aptos.  Plaintiff requested similar outreach to potential employees in Muslim countries in the Middle East, but his request was denied by Aptos.

Subsequently, the plaintiff gave his superiors a written memorandum explaining the reasons the words and phrases used by his Jewish co-workers to describe 2023 Hamas attack were offensive to Palestinians civilians, who were not part of Hamas. Plaintiff alleged that after his superiors received this memorandum, they started to criticize his work performance and then placed him on a performance improvement plan (PIP). Two weeks later, Plaintiff was terminated. Plaintiff alleged that Aptos termination of him for “poor performance” was a pretext for complaining about unequal treatment because prior to his complaints about unequal treatment, he received good performance reviews.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee on account of his/her race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, sex, religion, sexuality, as well as other factors.  The NJLAD applies to all employers who are located in New Jersey. The NJLAD also applies to out-of-state employers if they hire any New Jersey residents to work remotely from New Jersey.

While a private employer (as opposed to employees of governmental agencies) has the right to bar any employees from expressing political opinions at the workplace, if the employer elects to allow its employees to make political posts or comments on its internal message platform, it must allow all employees the same right, and cannot discriminate as to who is allowed to post based on age, race, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc.  Such an action constitutes outright discrimination in violation of the NJLAD.

Chatarpaul Law Firm, P.C. has been successfully representing clients for almost two decades in the New York and New Jersey areas, and we specialize in employment discrimination cases, as well as discrimination in non-employment settings, such as consumers and customers of banks, restaurants, retailers, auto dealerships and other businesses and institutions. We are committed to the relentlessly pursue justice for our clients against any defendants, no matter how big they are.

If you are a victim of workplace discrimination or harassment, Kindly contact us at (201) 222-0123 or info@chatarpaullawfirm.com