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Employment Law

National origin isn’t just about nationality

03/01/2010

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars discrimination based on national origin. What constitutes national origin is broader than you might assume. According to the EEOC, national origin can be defined as the place where someone or her ancestors came from. But national origin is also a factor if someone has the “physical, cultural or linguistic characteristics of a national-origin group.”

Ignore harassment at your peril: It could embolden harasser and end in disaster

03/01/2010

It isn’t enough just to have a sexual harassment policy. You have to enforce it, investigating all complaints and then putting a stop to any behavior that could reasonably be interpreted as sexual harassment. Otherwise, the harasser might simply grow bolder. And that can spell disaster, especially if a jury winds up hearing from lots of other employees who came forward to complain over the course of months or years before the harassment got bad enough to warrant a lawsuit.

Workers hired through temp service? Normal anti-discrimination rules still apply

03/01/2010

Warn supervisors and managers: They should treat temporary workers who come to you via an employment service or agency just like they do other employees. All the normal rules on workplace discrimination still apply. That means temps who experience harassment or discrimination may be able to sue both the temp agency and your company for that discrimination.

DOL no longer a roadblock: Floodgates open for more federal whistle-blower lawsuits

03/01/2010

Until recently, there was a predictable destination for most whistle-blowing cases filed by disgruntled employees who reported corporate wrongdoing under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: a large pile of folders languishing at the U.S. Department of Labor. But now the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has changed all that.

Handle necessary search as unobtrusively as possible

03/01/2010

With workplace violence continuing to make news, employers naturally want to lessen the chance that an angry employee will try to do harm. When they’re about to fire an employee, some employers search the worker’s car to make sure it doesn’t contain any weapons. Handle that search as unobtrusively as possible.

Consider reassignment to open positions as accommodation

03/01/2010

Under the ADA, employers are obligated to make reasonable accommodations. Those accommodations may include transfer to an open position for which the employee is qualified. Failing to do so may attract EEOC attention.

Workplace deaths down across North Carolina

03/01/2010

The number of deaths on the job plummeted to its lowest level ever, in 2009, according to a report issued by the North Carolina Department of Labor. Although some of the decrease could be a result of the slow economy—fewer workers might mean fewer accidents—measures that adjust for the number of workers fell as well.

New contract: Pay up, insurance costs down for AT&T employees

03/01/2010

The Communication Workers of America union has inked a new collective-bargaining agreement with AT&T, bringing 9% pay increases over three years to some 35,000 phone company employees in the Southeast.

Feds launch initiative to ID misclassified ‘contractors’

03/01/2010

The U. S. Department of Labor, in conjunction with the IRS, has announced a “misclassification initiative” aimed at employers that misclassify employees as independent contractors. A 2009 Government Accountability Office report labeled misclassification a “significant problem” with “adverse consequences” for the government.

Understand North Carolina’s workers’ comp notice requirements

03/01/2010

To be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act requires employees to notify their employers if they are injured at work. North Carolina courts have spelled out why this requirement is important: