At least three Central Jersey residents have filed lawsuits against the retail company saying that they were wrongly let go January 2012 in violation of the state’s Law Against Discrimination.

All three said that they had been approached to form a union “because of how employees at BBB were being treated unfairly,” according to their complaints filed this month in Superior Court in New Brunswick.

Jessica Joyce, a spokeswoman for the company, said Tuesday that the company does not comment on pending litigation.

The legal action comes on the heels of a settlement last year between the company and another fired employee who successfully appealed his termination to the National Labor Relations Board.

An administrative law judge last January ruled that Bed Bath & Beyond violated labor law by interrogating an employee about his union activities, then firing him. The employee is entitled to back pay, cost of health insurance and several months of front pay.

The effort by United Food & Commercial Workers Local 888 to organize was unsuccessful. In a union election June 2012, months after the workers were fired, employees voted 506 to 266 against union representation, according to the NLRB’s Newark Regional Office.

Richard Panitch, the Perth Amboy attorney representing the three warehouse workers who have filed suit, said the labor strife “goes hand in hand” with what his clients are alleging.

“It’s not just one person’s rights being violated,” he said Tuesday. “There’s a lot of smoke here. Where there is a lot of smoke, there is fire.”

Laurence Gallagher said he was fired, supposedly for using foul language, after years of enduring belittling taunts about his age. He is 64.

“It’s a bad place to work and I’m glad I’m out of there,” the Sayreville resident said Tuesday. “But it took me quite awhile to find another job.”

Most of the warehouse employees are Spanish-speaking, according to NLRB findings, and Gallagher said many feared speaking out because they were not in the country legally.

“They held a sword and a hammer over these people’s heads. These people have to eat. That’s what I’m against,” he said.

Also suing are John Chmielewski and Jerka Stechmann, both Port Reading residents who claim that the company denied them reasonable accommodations after they suffered back and shoulder injuries on the job.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages, including front and back pay and attorney’s fees.

Sergio Bichao