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Employment Law

Furloughs go white-collar: How to keep them fair and legal

06/26/2009

In past recessions, furloughs—requiring employees to take a certain number of unpaid days off—were mostly limited to blue-collar workers. But this downturn is different. In the past two years, everyone from tech firms to state government has furloughed their white-collar employees. Experts offer the following options for furloughs:

Survey: New COBRA subsidy will increase costs

06/26/2009

Six of 10 employers anticipate that their health care costs will increase as a result of the new federal COBRA subsidy law, says an Aon Consulting survey.

No evaluations? You could be called ‘Out!’

06/26/2009

If your organization doesn’t have a solid performance evaluation system in place, you’re taking a high-stakes gamble you just might lose. Discharged employees who sue will have a much easier time getting to a jury trial if you can’t produce performance evaluations that back up why you terminated them.

Make sure managers report sexual harassment

06/26/2009

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that managers who actually supervise the work of subordinates have a duty to report sexual harassment when they learn of it. If they don’t, their employer can still be held liable.

Congress considers legislation mandating paid sick leave

06/26/2009

Millions of employees would be eligible for seven days of paid sick leave annually if the Healthy Families Act, recently introduced in Congress, becomes law. A coalition of HR and business groups vowed to fight the bill, saying it would “force companies to increase layoffs, reduce wages and cut important employee benefits.”

Know the limits of employee free speech—no need to tolerate out-of-line protests

06/26/2009

Employees have the right to voice concerns and complaints about perceived workplace discrimination. But employers have rights, too. Employees don’t have the right to communicate their concerns in ways that are disruptive, insubordinate or that otherwise violate reasonable company policies. You can punish employees who don’t play by the rules.

Public employees and ‘advocacy’ speech: It’s not protected if it’s part of the job

06/26/2009

Public employers can’t punish employees for speaking out on matters of public importance. That doesn’t mean, however, that whatever an employee says is protected. One big exception involves speech when part of the employee’s job is to speak up about the topic. That’s not protected speech.

Easy come, easy go: Political appointees have little room to blame firings on bias

06/26/2009

In a pair of 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals cases, the court has made it clear that it has little tolerance for political appointees who clearly understand they serve at the pleasure of their elected officials and still sue when they are terminated, alleging some form of discrimination.

Emotional distress claims are workers’ comp issues

06/26/2009

A court has ruled that employees who file harassment and discrimination lawsuits can’t tack on charges of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Instead, the court said emotional damage claims allegedly caused by negligence are the sole province of the New Jersey workers’ compensation system.

Poor review not grounds for FMLA retaliation suit

06/26/2009

All by itself, a negative performance review after an employee has taken FMLA leave doesn’t give the employee a reason to file a lawsuit. Unless the poor review is accompanied by something tangible—like a demotion or the loss of a pay increase—courts won’t see the review as retaliation.