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Discrimination / Harassment

The HR I.Q. Test: October ’08

09/18/2008

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Can we give higher pay to employee with degree?

09/18/2008

Q. Is it illegal to pay someone without a degree less than someone with the degree? In our case, two employees have the same title but do slightly different tasks. One has a bachelor’s in HR and the other does not. However, the one without a degree is doing all the HR duties and gets paid less than the one with a degree. The degreed employee doesn’t use her HR skills in her job at all.

Take responsibility for preventing harassment, discrimination

09/18/2008

It isn’t enough to fix discrimination and end harassment when you find out about it. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) your organization has a duty to prevent it …

Can we talk? A guide to political expression in the workplace

09/18/2008

The presidential campaign has everyone talking politics, and inevitably a lot of that talking takes place at work. As the campaign season moves toward the general election, many employers are re-examining their workplace policies concerning political activities and speech. Evidence suggests employers must educate employees concerning workplace political speech …

Train bosses: Religious bias is illegal, too!

09/15/2008
Train managers, executives and, yes, business owners that discrimination on the basis of religion is illegal. They need to understand that making assumptions based on religion—how certain customers would perceive a waitress’s headscarf, for example—is a virtual invitation to be sued. Hire and promote based only on skills and talent …

Independent review can catch retaliation

09/15/2008
Cynthia Morrison, who had worked for 17 years as an emergency room registrar, sued for age discrimination and retaliation. A lower court dismissed her discrimination claim, but sent the retaliation claim to the jury, which awarded Morrison $115,000. But the hospital appealed and won …

AARP sued for age discrimination

09/12/2008
Bonita Brady, an employee in the Lansing office of AARP, is suing the advocacy group, claiming she was passed over for promotions and terminated due to her age …

Did old rap sheet lead to firing and another appearance in court?

09/12/2008
Sometimes it takes awhile for a company to find out how well an employee is going to work out. For example, it took Guardian Alarm Company of Michigan 21 years to figure out that Ronald Schocker wasn’t a good fit. Now a judge has said, “Wait a minute!”

The rules of company blogging: Avoiding employee misuse and abuse

09/12/2008

Spend any time scanning the world’s 112 million blogs and you’ll find plenty of employees discussing their work. Sometimes that spells legal trouble for employers. By implementing an effective company blogging policy, you may avoid many of the pitfalls …

Carefully craft bona fide occupational qualification limits

09/10/2008
Some jobs can be handled only by someone of a particular gender. For example, a dress model necessarily has to be female. Under the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII, employers may limit those jobs to members of one sex and refuse to hire members of the opposite sex under the so-called bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) exception. But the BFOQ is strictly limited …