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Discrimination / Harassment

New pregnancy protections ring in the New Year in California

01/22/2013

California employees now enjoy ex­panded pregnancy rights after new Fair Employment and Housing Commission regulations took effect Dec. 30, 2012. The regulations bar employers from discriminating against employees for virtually any pregnancy-related condition.

Employee acts as own lawyer? Consider cutting your losses

01/22/2013
Judges tend to bend over backward to help so-called pro se litigants—individuals who decide to represent themselves in court. Sometimes, an employer’s best bet is to settle for a small amount—or urge the former employee to find an attorney.

Temp’s contract expired? He can still sue you

01/22/2013
Temporary workers can still sue even if they no longer work for you because their contracts expired and weren’t renewed.

Document why you require bilingual skills

01/22/2013
Many organizations serve customers who speak a language other than English, and require em­ployees to have specific bilingual skills. If that describes your organization, make sure you can defend the language requirement if you’re sued.

Boss gives the ‘cold shoulder’: Discrimination … or just a dis?

01/17/2013
Does it seem like courts keep telling us we have to monitor all juvenile behavior in the workplace? Do we need to hire “conduct cops” for our hallways? A court ruling last month smacked some sense into the laws and said “no”—not all bad-boss behavior is automatically “discrimination.”

Don’t let fear of being sued stop you from disciplining employee

01/14/2013
Don’t let the fear of litigation keep you from making necessary decisions. Sometimes, you have to discipline employees for the good of the organization.

Layoffs looming? Use past reviews to decide who stays and who goes

01/14/2013
Smart employers use past per­­for­­mance rankings as the major criterion for laying off employees during a reduction in force. The reason is obvious: Since the rankings predate the layoff decisions, they’re almost impossible to challenge.

Track all discipline and check for fairness

01/13/2013
Do you monitor all discipline and make sure employees who break the same rule suffer similar consequences? It’s the best way to win discrimination lawsuits.

Background checks: How safe is too safe?

01/11/2013

Q. We are considering instituting a criminal background check policy for all employee positions. We’ve heard scary stories of lawsuits regarding negligent hiring, and we’d really like to avoid that sort of litigation, not to mention the negative media attention. Is there any downside to having an “across the board” criminal background check policy?

Defense firm pays $100,000 to settle race bias claim

01/11/2013
Aerospace and defense contractor ATK has agreed to pay a job applicant $100,000 after she complained about discriminatory hiring practices at the company’s Eden Prairie plant.