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Discrimination / Harassment

Punitive damages based on staff size at time of discrimination

05/06/2008
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act caps how much employers have to pay for everything except back wages in discrimination cases. The limits on punitive damages depend on how many employees the company has. Now a federal court has clarified a fine point—the employee number that counts is how many employees the company had in the year the discrimination took place …

Déjà vu: Fresh act of discrimination may revive old complaints

05/06/2008
Generally, employees have to file discrimination lawsuits soon after an adverse employment decision or act of harassment. But sometimes employees can go far back in time if they can tie a recent event to past events. If that happens, a jury may get to hear a litany of complaints, each adding weight to the other …

HR decision doesn’t have to be perfect—Just honest

05/06/2008
Sometimes, even the best HR professionals may feel paralyzed when faced with a major employee discipline decision, such as whether an employee should be fired. They hedge and keep asking supervisors questions, or keep an investigation open to get more information. If this sounds like your HR office when dealing with a discrimination complaint, relax …

Sometimes an apology is all it takes

05/06/2008
Jack Burghardt, an administrative support assistant in the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office, said he meant no offense when he asked two Hispanic co-workers how much it costs their “people to get across the border these days.” His boss felt the comment had racial overtones and suspended Burghardt for four days …

McDonald’s pays half a million for harassing teens

05/06/2008
McDonald’s will pay more than $505,000 to four former workers who won a lawsuit in which they charged the manager of a Durango store with harassment. A lawyer for two of the victims said the girls did not pursue criminal charges because they feared they would be revictimized in the process …

EEOC sues Albertson’s for retaliation

05/06/2008
The EEOC has filed a second lawsuit against Albertson’s, the Idaho-based grocery store chain, for retaliating against workers in its Aurora distribution center. The first lawsuit, filed in 2006, claimed the center harbored a racially hostile environment against blacks and Hispanics …

Black Denver deputies allege discrimination in sheriff’s dept.

05/06/2008
A group of black sheriff’s deputies is suing Denver and the Denver Sheriff Department, claiming the agency harbors a “culture of racism.” The lawsuit claims black employees are punished more harshly than whites for similar behavior …

Serial harasser moved … and brought harassment with him

05/06/2008
Dillard’s, the Arkansas-based department store chain, has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit on behalf of 12 female former employees who were sexually harassed by an assistant store manager in two states …

Kids will be kids: Inappropriate workplace behavior and teenage workers

05/06/2008

Q. Some of our employees are teenagers who work part time while they go to school. Often, this is their first job. Some of them don’t seem to understand proper behavior in the work environment. They usually are OK with customers, but when they are interacting with each other, they give each other a hard time. Verbal put-downs and even physical acts are common. Does this create any potential problems? …

Congress OKs New Genetic Bias Law—What’s it Mean for HR?

05/06/2008
Congress just passed the nation’s first federal law prohibiting employers and insurance companies from discriminating against individuals on the basis of genetic information, a protection critics have called “a remedy in search of a problem.” Find out what the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act prohibits, and why some believe it could cause trouble for employers.