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Discrimination / Harassment

No disability discrimination if worker isn’t qualified for job

04/01/2007

A hospital secretary who suffered chronic arm pain after puncturing her thumb with a contaminated pin recently lost her disability-discrimination lawsuit …

Separation agreement protects employer from age bias claim

04/01/2007

A 55-year-old employee whose job was eliminated in a company restructuring recently lost his age-discrimination case before the 6th Circuit Court. Reason: He had signed a separation agreement waiving all claims against the company …

Quick fix can help avoid harassment liability

04/01/2007

Q. One of our male supervisors fired what we in HR thought was a poor-performing female employee. During the exit interview, the terminated employee told us that her supervisor fired her because he was sexually harassing her and she threatened to report him if it didn’t stop. It turned out that her claim was legitimate. We immediately called her back to work.

We thought we had dodged a bullet but, unfortunately, we’ve been contacted by her attorney, who threatened a lawsuit unless we agree to settle her claim for a lot of money. We will contact an attorney to represent us, but we want to know if the fact that we brought her right back to work is going to make a difference? —L.W.

Should you pay employees to change unhealthy behaviors?

04/01/2007

Cash is king when it comes to wellness incentives. Studies show that the almighty dollar is the best motivator for employee participation in wellness activities, followed closely by reductions in health insurance premiums …

Make sure employees know about internal job openings

04/01/2007

It pays to make every effort to publicize job openings to your current staff and make clear how employees should apply. If you don’t, you face potential discrimination claims

Two Philly officers file lawsuit citing lax response to stalker

04/01/2007

Two married police officers in Philadelphia’s K-9 Unit have sued the police department for allowing a female chief inspector to harass and stalk them for more than a year …

Former editor sues Wilkes-Barre newspaper for age bias, retaliation

04/01/2007

Allison Walzer, former editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, has added a retaliation claim to a pending discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper, where she worked for 24 years …

Worker Doesn’t Have to Say ‘Harassment’ to Make Complaint

04/01/2007

Don’t wait for employees to use the magic words—“sexual harassment”—to begin investigating a complaint. It’s up to you to decipher an employee’s protests to determine if they could fall into that legally dangerous harassment-complaint zone …

This jury verdict didn’t break any records

04/01/2007

Although a 63-year-old quality control inspector won his age-discrimination lawsuit, a jury awarded him only $1 in damages …

Can we ban dating among co-workers?

04/01/2007

Q. We recently defended a workplace harassment lawsuit against our company involving two co-workers who broke up. To avoid future problems, can we impose prohibitions against co-workers dating to avoid future problems? …