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Employee Relations

Worker’s outburst wins NLRA protection

11/01/2001
Disciplining an employee who protests working conditions at your company will put you at risk of being charged with an unfair labor practice, even if you’re a nonunion employer. Case in …

Don’t pull punches; fire when necessary

11/01/2001
The Cook County, Ill., Sheriff’s Department fired Harriet Rizzo when it discovered that she didn’t have a high school diploma as required, and she had lied about it on her job …

Don’t leave victim in doubt about response to harassment

11/01/2001
It started innocently enough. After Romelia Frazier’s car was stolen, she rode to work for several months with another Delco employee, Bester Spears. He had just divorced a woman who had …

Retaliation protection extends to employee’s family

11/01/2001
Michael Flannery was a pro-union employee at a baking plant where his wife was a supervisor. Soon after Flannery joined in an organizing drive, managers told him that his actions were …

An honest mistake won’t sink you

10/01/2001
After receiving a phone message that her father had suffered a heart attack, Vickie Medley told her boss that she was leaving Denver immediately to drive to Nebraska. Over the next …

You Can Restrict Use of Personal Days

10/01/2001

Q. If a company provides both personal and vacation days for its employees and does not define what a personal day is, can that be used for anything outside of vacation time? —E.H., Utah

Doc’s opinion alone isn’t enough

10/01/2001
Larry Jackson’s doctor cleared him to return to work without restrictions following his triple bypass surgery. His employer, DBM Technologies, initially assigned him …

Raise Doesn’t Prove Employee Was Succeeding

10/01/2001

Q. About three months ago, we gave a marginal employee who is pregnant a pay raise in hopes that it would improve her job performance by boosting her morale. Unfortunately, her performance has gone from bad to worse. If we fire her for poor performance, can she successfully argue that the recent raise indicates that she was performing well and that our reason for terminating her was discriminatory? —H.K., Illinois

Don’t let blabbing employees hide their identity on the Internet

09/01/2001
Imagine that an employee posts confidential information about your company on an Internet message board. What do you do? One company sued the message-board site to learn the identity of the …

Investigate complaints, pronto

09/01/2001
The male workers at an Azteca restaurant constantly mocked Antonio Sanchez for his effeminate ways. They swore at him and referred to the waiter as “she” and “her.” Sanchez finally …