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Discrimination / Harassment

Beware false promises in handbooks; explain ‘what,’ not ‘why’

02/01/2006

Just the facts, ma’am. Your employee handbooks should clearly state your organization’s rules and benefits without including any excess or superfluous language. If you embellish the document with needless explanations, you may end up eating your words …

Hiring licensed applicants? Check for violations that revoke the license

02/01/2006

When hiring people who need to possess certain licenses, make sure you do more than just check that the applicant holds the license. Your application process should include a background check into any violations that could lead to a license revocation …

 

EEOC restructuring may lead to more job bias lawsuits

02/01/2006

The EEOC last month began repositioning its field office structure, aiming to enhance its enforcement presence and improve customer service. The agency will reduce the number of managers in its field offices and increase front-line staffing for investigations …

Office romance: Don’t ban it; manage it the right way

02/01/2006

Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on a person’s sex. When office romances sour, scorned lovers often use this law to allege that their former lover was a sexual harasser …

Keep ‘Customer Preference’ Out of Your Hiring Criteria

02/01/2006

Make sure your hiring managers understand that basing hiring decisions on the prejudices of your customer base is a sure way to land in court. Applicants’ race, age, sex or religion should always be irrelevant. Courts won’t be swayed by claims that customer preferences forced your hiring hand …

Revise your overly complex employee review methods

02/01/2006

If your evaluation procedures are too complicated, employees may question whether they’re being treated fairly. Mild suspicions can quickly grow into expensive discrimination lawsuits, as a new court ruling shows …

Female worker replaced by a female may still pursue sex bias case

01/01/2006

You may think that your organization is immune from a sex discrimination lawsuit if you hire a female employee to replace a fired female. But such "free passes" don’t automatically exist … and your supervisors should know it …

Decrease in Overtime Hours Not Necessarily an ‘Adverse Action’

01/01/2006

Employees need to prove they suffered some sort of "adverse job action" (firing, demotion, worse job conditions, etc.) to file a discrimination lawsuit. But variations in work schedules don’t necessarily amount to an adverse action. That’s true even if an employee’s altered schedule results in fewer overtime hours …

Show your defense cards early in the lawsuit game

01/01/2006

By having a tough anti-discrimination policy and a clear complaint procedure, you establish what lawyers call an "affirmative defense," meaning you have a weapon to defend yourself in court. But you must put forth those affirmative defenses very early in a lawsuit …

Know the ‘Cooling Off’ Period for Age-Bias Waivers

01/01/2006

Q. Can you tell me if there’s a law that says a 45-day waiting period must exist from the time employees are told they’ll be laid off until they receive the severance payment? Supposedly, this is called a cooling-off period. Is this a federal law? —T.M., Pennsylvania