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Employment Law

Sears finalizes record ADA settlement, worth $6.2 million

03/12/2010

A federal judge has approved a $6.2 million settlement agreement between Chicago-based retail giant Sears and the EEOC. The settlement comes after the commission determined last year that Sears’ policy of terminating disabled employees rather than negotiating reasonable accommodations violated the ADA.

Suspect sick leave abuse? Set strong policy to stamp it out–and allow legit FMLA leave

03/12/2010

Unplanned absences can disrupt even the best-run workplaces. Of course, you don’t want truly sick employees to come to work if they have some contagious illness. Nor do you want to discourage employees from taking legitimate FMLA leave. Your challenge as an employer: Craft and enforce an attendance policy that allows or even encourages legitimate sick leave use while discouraging abuse.

Rejecting job redesign for disabled employee? Document why it would be unreasonable

03/12/2010

Job restructuring is one of the reasonable accommodations listed in the ADA, and many disabled employees do ask for their duties to be modified as part of the reasonable accommodations process. If you reject such a request, be sure to document exactly why doing so would be unreasonable under the circumstances. You can use cost, inconvenience and anything else that might make drastically changing the job an undue hardship.

Use ‘no-reapplication’ clause to settle discrimination cases once and for all

03/12/2010

Some discrimination cases have a way of resurfacing even after you thought you had settled the matter. That can happen when the litigious employee reapplies for work. If you’re going to settle a case, consider including a clause that guarantees the former employee will never apply again. That might have been prudent in the following case:

No free-speech protection if job is to flag misconduct

03/12/2010

Government employees retain the right to free speech, and they can’t be punished for speaking out on matters of public importance. But if it’s part of an employee’s job to speak up, that protection doesn’t apply. Those employees are merely doing their jobs.

Boeing flying low following EEOC harassment settlements

03/12/2010

Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing has agreed to pay $380,000 to settle two sexual harassment complaints filed by employees at its Mesa, Ariz., plant.

Eagle Wings Industries settles sex harassment case

03/12/2010

Automotive supplier Eagle Wings Industries has agreed to pay a class of female employees $428,500 to settle sexual harassment charges stemming from illegal practices at its Rantoul location near Champaign.

Waiter serves suit implicating female boss; courts are digesting it

03/12/2010

In Turner v. The Saloon Ltd. the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit recently ruled that in a sexual harassment claim based on a hostile work environment, if at least one act of alleged harassment occurred within 180 days of an EEOC filing, courts can consider the entire time period of the hostile environment in determining an employer’s liability.

After military leave, does employee get across-the-board raise instituted while he was gone?

03/12/2010

Q. Last month we reinstated an employee who was on military leave for six months. It’s the same position, with the same pay he received before he went on military leave. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, all employees in his department received a 4% pay raise in recognition for their hard work in 2009. Does the law require us to pay him at this increased rate?

Face age discrimination claims head on

03/11/2010

Here’s a twist, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 Gross v. FBL Financial Services age discrimination decision. The court ruled that employees have to show that “but for” their age, their employer wouldn’t have fired them.