• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Discipline / Investigations

Don’t let FMLA trip you up: Have HR investigate leave abuse

11/01/2007

You expect employees to follow your attendance and time-reporting rules and probably discipline those who don’t. But you need to know that FMLA leave can be an attendance minefield where disciplinary actions can cause great damage. Employees who allege that employers “willfully” interfered with their FMLA rights or retaliated against them for taking FMLA leave have up to three years to sue. One way to prevent the willful violation charge is to take the employee’s supervisor out of the disciplinary process …

Dock pay as part of discipline?

11/01/2007

Q. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, may I dock an employee’s pay as a disciplinary penalty? …

Demanding lie detector test isn’t necessarily retaliation

11/01/2007

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas employers, has refused to say that Title VII prohibits the use of polygraph examinations in harassment investigations. Now juries get to decide whether forcing an employee to undergo a polygraph exam is retaliation for filing a complaint …

If employee makes threats, discipline isn’t retaliation

11/01/2007

You’ve done everything right. You have a solid anti-harassment and discrimination policy, a simple and effective complaint process and you strive to fairly, completely and quickly resolve complaints. But what do you do when the employee who complained doesn’t like the results and blows up? …

It’s not discrimination if worker wasn’t disciplined

11/01/2007

Employees whose employers turn down their requests for time off to attend religious services can’t just run out and sue for religious discrimination. They have a case only if their employers discipline or discharge them for refusing to comply with work requirements—for example, skipping work to attend services …

Guard what’s said during in-House investigation—It’s not absolutely privileged

11/01/2007

When an employee alleges wrongdoing, you’ll need to conduct a thorough internal investigation. That may mean interviewing employees, supervisors and even customers. But be careful how much information you share with those you interview. If you indiscriminately discuss the comments of others who were interviewed, it may constitute defamation. Texas law only protects communications made in the course of a wrongdoing investigation if disclosure is limited to people who have a legitimate reason to know …

NC employees can win bigger windfall in harassment suits

10/01/2007

In North Carolina, it’s not just sexual harassment lawsuits brought under federal law that you have to worry about. Your organization could face state tort law claims, such as “intentional infliction of emotional distress” or “negligent supervision” if an employee’s behavior is extreme enough and management doesn’t take steps to stop it …

HR tracking system helps ensure equal treatment

10/01/2007

When it comes to discrimination, your best defense is treating everyone absolutely equally. And that’s tough to do without a central HR tracking system. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Make sure you note any problems (and praise) in each employee’s official file. Then, do regular audits—pulling out data on age, sex, national origin and race—to tabulate the types of problems and any discipline levied …

Disciplining employees under the modern employment laws

10/01/2007

Ask employers what their toughest challenge is, and they probably will mention discipline. It seems no one likes to play parent in the workplace. On the other hand, there’s no way to avoid it …

4 strategies can put a stop to unauthorized overtime

10/01/2007

As overtime lawsuits continue to surge, organizations often try to defend themselves by pointing to a policy that says employees should have received management approval for overtime. But a written policy isn’t enough, as employers are learning the hard way …