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Employment Law

Former official sues NASCAR for $225 million

07/01/2008
Mauricia Grant, a former NASCAR technical inspector, has filed a $225 million lawsuit against the stock car racing sanctioning body for racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination, saying “life in the garage” was appalling …

Settlement in race case despite employee’s ‘Scandalous’ record

07/01/2008
Boda Plumbing of Monroe has agreed to pay $18,500 to Anthrone Cunningham to settle an EEOC racial discrimination lawsuit. Before settling, Boda Plumbing asked the court to consider that Cunningham has “an extensive criminal record …

Masonry firm misclassified workers as independent contractors

07/01/2008
Nelson Torres Garcia, owner of Stone Masonry Unlimited in Fuquay-Varina, has agreed to pay $10,000 in fines for misclassifying five people working on a construction project in Braintree, Mass., as independent contractors …

Civil rights groups seek union representation for gov’t workers

07/01/2008
The NAACP and other civil rights groups urged lawmakers to give government employees collective bargaining rights during the organization’s “People of Color Justice and Unity Legislative Day” on May 28 in Raleigh …

Beware hazards when calculating N.C. unemployment insurance tax

07/01/2008
Under the North Carolina unemployment insurance tax law, employers pay a quarterly tax based on a percentage of their payroll. Most newly liable or startup employers are assigned the standard beginning tax rate of 1.2%. Problems can arise when an employer is not truly a “startup” or when two employers combine by merger or other acquisition forms … 

State law’s effect on AIDS in the workplace

07/01/2008
Q. Does North Carolina have any laws concerning AIDS in the workplace? …

Discrimination and pay issues when employee has jury duty

07/01/2008
Q. One of our employees has been called for jury duty. What are our obligations? …

Can your e-mail survive ‘Smoking gun’ software?

07/01/2008
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are using a new tactic to search for incriminating e-mail messages in corporate e-mail archives—software that seeks out “worry words” in e-mails that could show your company was aware of potential liability earlier than it admits …

Political shift could heighten your union risk

07/01/2008
“If you’ve not dealt with unions before, I cannot overemphasize how quickly the world could change this fall,” said Mike Fox, a Texas-based attorney with Ogletree Deakins. “This would be the first time in my life we’d really have a president aligned with organized labor.”

Demanding coffee may be gauche, but it’s not harassment

07/01/2008
In a case that illustrates just how sensitive some employees are to perceived sexual stereotypes, a woman hired to work as a receptionist tried to claim that refusing to serve her male bosses coffee was tantamount to engaging in protected activity. Then she alleged retaliation …