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Employment Law

Personnel records a mess? Clean them up now

06/04/2008
How carefully do you maintain your company’s personnel files? If they are a mess and don’t include relevant information such as applications, set aside time now to straighten them out! Courts are increasingly ordering employers being sued for discrimination to turn over any arguably related files …

Want to guarantee a lawsuit? Just fail to investigate

06/04/2008
It is pure foolishness to ignore an employee complaint. Employers are almost always better off investigating the claim—even if the matter seems frivolous—than letting the perceived problem fester. Ignoring the request may be all it takes to spur a lawsuit …

Good-Faith Process—But Not Absolutely Correct Conclusion—Is Enough to Fire Harasser

06/04/2008
When it comes to sexual harassment complaints, you won’t land in legal hot water if you conduct a thorough and fair investigation—even if you reach the wrong conclusion. What matters is that you take the charge seriously, investigate and come to a reasonable conclusion based on the findings …

Feuding employees leave employer mired in the middle

06/04/2008
Annie Ludwig began working for the Rochester Psychiatric Center (RPC) as a psychiatric nurse in the Adult Services Unit. Within a month, she was counseled to improve her professional knowledge, supervision and attendance. Otherwise, she would be in danger of losing her job …

Switched at birth: DCS women will get almost $1 million

06/04/2008
The New York State Department of Correctional Services (DCS) will pay $972,000 to 23 female DCS employees who were shortchanged by the department’s maternity leave policy when they became pregnant while on workers’ compensation leave …

Sexual harassment costs Rochester company $375,000

06/04/2008
American Industrial Sales Corp., a Rochester-based distributor of highway and industrial safety products, will pay $375,000 to 18 women to settle an EEOC sexual harassment lawsuit …

Job background check must comply with Fair Credit Reporting Act

06/04/2008

The Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates how your company performs a job background check on applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t just cover credit checks. It covers any background report, such as driving records and criminal histories obtained from a “consumer reporting agency.”

Restrict access to data about protected characteristics

06/03/2008
One of the most important HR functions is monitoring whether your organization is unwittingly discriminating when hiring, firing or promoting. To do that, you obviously have to know who belongs to what protected classification. At the same time, you don’t necessarily want the supervisors and managers who make employment decisions to have that information at their fingertips …

Management bias not necessarily enough to justify quitting

06/03/2008
Employees who complain that other employees have been discriminated against can’t just walk off the job and sue, claiming their working conditions were intolerable. The workplace must be more than merely unpleasant to justify a claimed constructive discharge …

You fired worker on FMLA leave? Better have a good reason

06/03/2008
Employers can’t manipulate the FMLA to terminate employees for taking FMLA leave by trumping up charges. As the following case shows, courts grow very suspicious when employers come up with reasons to fire employees who are on FMLA leave. And they often send such cases to trial, leaving employers at the mercy of juries …