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

Employment Law

Murphy Ford created self-fulfilling Murphy’s Law

03/26/2009

Murphy Ford of Chester will pay $244,000 to settle sexual harassment complaints from three female employees. According to a complaint filed with the EEOC, the women complained to management about the dealership’s service manager who used to grab his private parts and make sexually explicit comments.

School district pulls salary scale bait-and-switch

03/26/2009

A hearing examiner for the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has ruled the Loyalsock Township School District engaged in an unfair labor practice when it failed to release the salary scale the district and teachers’ union agreed upon in the final contract.

‘100% healed’ policy is 100% wrong, court says

03/26/2009

The federal court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently ruled that UPS’ policy of requiring injured employees to be fully healed before they can return to work constitutes discrimination under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

Go away! Court won’t hear disabled plaintiff’s 12th lawsuit

03/26/2009

Normally courts are pretty lenient in allowing poor plaintiffs to file lawsuits. But the federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently decided a disabled man who had filed 11 lawsuits in that court since 1999 no longer deserved the court’s indulgence.

Low-hanging fruit: Obama reverses executive orders, favors labor

03/26/2009

President Obama has issued four executive orders that fundamentally change the government’s policy on federal contracting—in ways that dramatically favor organized labor. Obama signed the four new orders less than 30 days after taking office.

Can we deduct partial days off from salaried employees’ accrued leave?

03/26/2009

Q. If a company tracks employees’ vacation, sick and personal time off, can we make deductions from accumulated time for everyone who takes time off, including salaried employees? I’m talking about deducting it from the accrual, not the pay. I’ve heard that I can’t deduct vacation, sick leave or personal time if the salaried employee worked at least four hours during that day.

Could an offer letter compromise at-will employment?

03/26/2009

Q. Is it wrong to ask new hires to sign job-offer letters? We ask for a signed copy as part of documenting that they were informed that employment was “at will.” Is this inadvisable?

What risks do we run if older worker loses job in restructuring?

03/26/2009

Q. We’re a small business (just eight employees) and haven’t laid anyone off. But business is slow and we need to restructure. We have an employee who has worked here part time (12 hours per week) for 25 years. She is 65 years old. We have one other part-timer (10 hours per week) who has worked here just one year. We’d like to lay off both part-time employees and keep the full-time employees. Can we do that?

Can we institute blanket ban on smoking on company property?

03/26/2009

Q. We run a carry-out/catering kitchen. Can we legally tell all our employees and customers that they can’t smoke on the property?

‘Overqualified’: Legit phrase or lawsuit bait?

03/26/2009

With unemployment at its highest level since 1983, many applicants have far more experience and education than the job requires. But be alert: Advise hiring managers to avoid using the term “overqualified” in front of job candidates or in any written description of them. Rejected applicants could view the term as an age-related code word, thus sparking an age discrimination lawsuit.