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Discrimination / Harassment

Think twice before setting ‘English-only’ rule; courts view complaints as protected activity

06/30/2011
Don’t try to prevent employees from speaking languages other than Eng­lish at work, especially when they’re chatting among themselves. Unless you have a good business reason for banning other languages, courts will likely see the practice as discriminatory.

Voodoo a religion? Texas HHS about to find out

06/30/2011
A former employee of the Texas Health and Human Services Com­mis­sion has accused the state agency of retaliation and discrimination on the basis of her religion—voodoo.

It’s legit to use differences in location and duties to justify varying pay scales

06/30/2011
Under the Equal Pay Act, em­­ployers can set different salaries based on geographically distinct job locations. In other words, you aren’t required to pay a manager in New York City the same as one in a lower-cost locale, even if the New York manager is male and the manager in the other location is female. Plus, any differences in responsibilities can help justify the difference.

Are you ready to punish a slacking employee? First, have a talk

06/29/2011

HR professionals or managers should always discuss performance or behavior problems with employees before disciplining them. After all, employees often admit their mistakes when confronted directly. And any admissions can be used later to support your disciplinary decision if the employee claims discrimination.

Can we consider only currently working candidates?

06/28/2011
Q. What restrictions exist on advertising for job vacancies? We are flooded with applications and have considered limiting applications to the currently employed. We worry the unemployed have rusty skills. Can we say we won’t consider hiring unemployed people?

New Jersey’s expanding the window of discrimination liability

06/28/2011
In New Jersey, employees must ordinarily file discrimination claims within two years after the claim arose. But in a series of recent cases, the New Jersey Supreme Court has recognized several exceptions that extend the two-year period in discrimination cases. That’s potentially bad news for employers, because longer filing timelines can make lawsuits harder to defend.

Settlement may mean higher pay for pharma firm’s N.J. women

06/28/2011

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, has agreed to settle a gender pay discrimination claim, and the con­sent decree that spells out the terms of the settlement could affect New Jersey women who work for the company. Under the settlement, 124 female pharmaceutical sales specialists will split $250,000.

NJLAD only covers employees who work in N.J.

06/28/2011
Good news if you have offices in New Jersey but employees in other states: Employees can’t sue in New Jersey just to gain the expansive protections available under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD).

Good faith wins court cases! Don’t use investigation to trap employee

06/24/2011

Employers get lots of leeway when it comes to terminating employees. For example, courts generally uphold firing someone for breaking a rule as long as the employer reasonably believed the employee broke the rule—even if it turns out he did not. But when it looks as if the employer tried to trick the employee into breaking a rule, judges won’t look the other way.

Fair harassment investigation can justify firing supervisor

06/24/2011
When investigating supervisor sexual har­assment claims, you must conduct a fair workplace investigation, not a criminal probe. As long as the investigation was fair and the conclusion was reasonable, courts won’t interfere.