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Employee Relations

No accommodation offer necessary at termination meeting

05/01/2007

Courts have consistently ruled that deaf employees are entitled to sign language interpreters during training sessions…. They may also need specialized equipment or software to perform their jobs. But do you need to provide an interpreter or specialized equipment during a disciplinary meeting? …

Independent investigations are key to making decisions stick and avoiding retaliation claims

05/01/2007

Employees who file EEOC or internal complaints charging discrimination often behave as if their complaint is a job guarantee. Approach them about performance problems, and they immediately cry “retaliation.” But you can’t allow your workplace practices to be held hostage if you have legitimate concerns about performance …

Discovered new hire’s litigious background? Don’t retaliate

05/01/2007

Hired a dud who, you just found out, has a history of crying discrimination? Make sure you have solid, business-related reasons for any discipline you take. Here’s why …

After employee files a complaint, follow up to check for retaliation

05/01/2007

Employees who come to HR with discrimination complaints may already have talked to a lawyer. They may be building a case and just waiting for someone to make a mistake. It’s your job to make sure that doesn’t happen …

Hey, customers! Guess what? We are sexual harassers!

05/01/2007

Do you have to tell your customers if you’re slapped with a sexual harassment verdict? You soon might have to. In a startling new court ruling, a judge in Illinois required a company to distribute a notice to its customers informing them of the $1 million sexual harassment verdict levied against it …

Use discipline to enforce your no-Overtime policy

05/01/2007

Q.  We temporarily allowed an hourly employee to come in early and take work home at night. We paid her for overtime on both ends. But now we’ve promoted someone else and told the hourly worker to stop coming in early and taking work home. She said she prefers working early and still does (plus she skips lunch) but reports for just 40 hours. Is she setting us up?—L.B., New York

Civility helps prevent a hostile environment, but you don’t need to sweat the small stuff

05/01/2007

You’ve told your first-line supervisors over and over again that crude language, insults and worse have no place in the workplace. But now an employee has filed a complaint, alleging her supervisor’s “insults” have created a hostile work environment …

Worker doesn’t have to say ‘Harassment’ to make claim

05/01/2007

Don’t wait for employees to use the magic words—“sexual harassment”—to begin investigating a complaint. It’s up to you and your management team to decipher an employee’s protests to determine if they could fall into that legally dangerous harassment-complaint zone …

Suspension or detention for the principal in the leather pants?

05/01/2007

The middle school years are tough on everyone, staff included. Maybe that explains the behavior of an assistant principal at a Parsippany middle school who ransacked a woman’s apartment …

Investigate claims to tackle harassment head-on

05/01/2007

When it comes to co-worker sexual harassment, it’s not enough to “fix” the problem by transferring the harasser. If you don’t also investigate the underlying complaint, expect a lawsuit when the harasser strikes again …