• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

What are the pros and cons of requiring staff to sign mandatory arbitration clauses?

08/06/2009

Q. My company is considering requiring employees to agree to an arbitration clause to resolve any employment disputes, including discrimination complaints. I have been told it is a good risk-management tool for avoiding high legal defense costs and big jury verdicts. Do you agree?

Compare disciplinary records before firing

08/04/2009

Employers know they are not supposed to discriminate against employees based on protected characteristics such as race, age or sex. But HR can’t be everywhere, and in large organizations, it may be hard to monitor equal treatment. A centralized discipline-tracking system can help you check for possible hidden discrimination by comparing proposed discipline against past discipline.

Warn bosses: No religious harassment at work

08/04/2009

Here’s an important reminder for all managers and supervisors: If the workplace becomes a battleground over employee religious beliefs, count on a lawsuit. The best policy: Keep religion out of the workplace as much as possible. After all, we’re here to work.

Feel free to let the punishment fit the ‘crime’ when disciplining for off-duty conduct

08/04/2009

Many employers have rules that prohibit off-duty conduct that may reflect negatively on the company. But even with such policies, it’s tricky to discipline employees for the things they do on their own time away from the workplace. In fact, you’re free to use discretion in deciding whether an employee should be warned, suspended or terminated.

You don’t have to accept employee’s offer to submit to a lie detector test

08/04/2009

An employee facing discipline may bristle if you choose to believe someone else’s version of what happened instead of his own. He may even offer to take a lie detector test to prove what he’s saying is true. You don’t have to accept that offer.

Retaliation alert! Beware timing when acting against worker who files EEOC complaint

08/04/2009

Here’s a reason to slow down and act deliberately when disciplining an employee who has filed an EEOC complaint: A court has concluded that coincidental timing alone can be enough to keep a case alive. That’s true even if it turns out that all the accusations in the EEOC complaint turn out to be unfounded.

Unemployment denied—even if misconduct wasn’t intentional

08/04/2009

Employees sometimes don’t do what they are told to do because they don’t think the task is possible or is too hard. If you fire such an employee for breaking a company rule—“Do what your boss tells you to do!”—you might be able to defeat the employee’s unemployment compensation claim.

Know the 3 criteria for same-sex harassment

08/04/2009

Men can sexually harass men, and women can sexually harass women. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlined three ways an employee can prove that an incident of same-sex harassment is sex discrimination:

Report blasts Austin’s construction safety record

08/04/2009

According to a critical report surveying the construction industry, 20% of Austin-area construction workers last year reported on-the-job injuries that required a trip to the doctor, and 20% of those employees said employers refused to pay their medical bills.

Lufkin ordered to pay $3 million in race bias suit

08/04/2009

A federal district court has ordered Lufkin Industries, the East Texas oilfield and industrial equipment manufacturer, to pay more than $3 million in back wages to a group of approximately 900 employees who claim they were victims of race discrimination.