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Employment Law

Arbitration agreement may be used for USERRA claims

09/05/2008

While USERRA may be comprehensive and quite broad, there is at least one area that courts seem willing to concede can be changed. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has recently ruled that employees and employers who agree to arbitrate disputes can include USERRA claims in that arbitration agreement …

Raise arbitration early—or else find yourself in court

09/05/2008

Does your organization have arbitration agreements in place for some employees, but not others? Then make sure you keep careful track of whose cases should go to arbitration and whose should not. If one of your employees sues in court, you may lose the right to arbitration if you don’t object to the lawsuit quickly …

Don’t punish manager for telling employee he may be discrimination victim

09/05/2008

Managers who raise potential discrimination claims to upper-level managers and then tell affected employees about the problem are protected from retaliation under the Ohio Revised Code’s employment discrimination sections …

Tell supervisors: You can’t just make up your own performance appraisal standards

09/05/2008

Employers that let supervisors add to or alter the way they conduct performance appraisals are playing with fire. For example, supervisors should never be allowed to assess things like tardiness and attendance using anything but official HR records …

Teacher fired over classroom content has no recourse

09/05/2008

Shelley Evans-Marshall was hired in 2000 with a yearlong contract to teach language arts at Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City. Evans-Marshall received positive reviews in her first year, and was rehired for a second term in 2001. That fall, Evans-Marshall gave her ninth-grade class an assignment featuring the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most frequently challenged books …

Duke Energy settles suit

09/05/2008

Duke Energy Corp. has reached a private settlement with John Deeds, a former employee who claimed he was fired in retaliation for questioning millions of dollars in payments that he considered kickbacks to corporate clients …

Woodmere Village settles reverse discrimination suit

09/05/2008

Woodmere Village in northeastern Ohio has settled an EEOC lawsuit with two police officers who claimed they were fired because they are white …

Political activity in the workplace: Can you discipline employees?

09/05/2008

The upcoming elections will highlight partisan politics and controversial issues affecting employees. No doubt, your workplace will be the site of some political discussions—and maybe overtly political activity. You need to understand when you can and cannot discipline employees for political activity …

Does docking pay affect FLSA status?

09/05/2008
Q. I recently docked one of my salaried employees’ pay for damage he caused to his company vehicle. My HR director said that by doing so, we might have made the employee eligible for overtime pay. Is this true? …

How long must we retain records?

09/05/2008
Q. How long should I keep employment-related records, such as wage information and personnel files? …