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Employment Law

$24M settlement ends Walgreens’ discrimination suit

04/09/2008
A federal judge has approved a settlement between Walgreens and a class of roughly 10,000 former and present employees who sued the retailer for race discrimination. The lawsuit alleged Deerfield-based Walgreens assigned black managers, management trainees and pharmacists to low-performing stores and denied them promotions based on their race …

Are noncompetes enforceable on employees who have been fired?

04/09/2008
Q. In Illinois, do noncompete agreements apply even when someone is terminated, as opposed to resigning? …

Rites of spring: The hidden dangers of hiring unpaid interns

04/08/2008

The calendar turns to spring, and you know what’s coming. It’s that time of year when employers are swamped with requests from college students for unpaid internships. The benefits of the symbiotic relationship are obvious. But the legal risks are not …

Clear, open promotion policies key to litigation-Free decisions

04/08/2008
The reality of the modern workplace is that at any given time, someone is going to be unhappy. Promotions may not come. Resentment may arise from working with employees from many racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds. Simply put, it’s next to impossible to prevent all discrimination claims. You can, however, minimize the risk of being sued by developing clear and open workplace and promotion policies …

Tell managers: Unless you have notes, you can’t terminate

04/08/2008
The quickest way for an employer to get into big trouble is to retaliate against an employee who files a discrimination charge. Any negative employment action after the charge is filed may mean an additional lawsuit. Instruct managers to document any alleged poor performance—and make sure they use only objective, concrete measures …

The Cost of Failing to Change: Echoes From the ‘Boom-Boom Room’

04/08/2008
Investment bank Smith Barney, a division of Citicorp, confirmed last week that it agreed to pay $33 million to about 2,500 current and female brokers to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. The $33 million is in addition to the $18 million the firm paid to settle a 1997 discrimination lawsuit alleging that female brokers were sexually harassed in the brokerage’s infamous "boom-boom room" …

Provide real chance to weigh signing separation agreement

04/08/2008
To make a severance agreement involving older workers stick, employers have to follow the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA). The law prohibits releases of Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) claims unless the agreement meets very specific requirements …

Older worker’s performance falling? Document the decline before discharge

04/08/2008
It almost never looks good in court when an employee who has been with the company for decades suddenly loses his job. For many potential jurors, that smacks of age discrimination even before they’ve heard any testimony. That’s one reason to try to get age cases dismissed long before a jury gets a chance to impose its judgment …

State’s lawyer says she was punished for union organizing

04/08/2008
Assistant Attorney General Amy Lawler says she was suspended for speaking out in favor of a union movement in the attorney general’s office. But Attorney General Lori Swanson’s administration says Lawler was put on leave in March only because she had failed to follow the proper channels in raising ethics concerns …

Airline merger in holding pattern

04/08/2008
A potential merger at Delta and Northwest airlines is on hold while pilots try to work out a seniority agreement. The proposed merger is complicated by the fact that Atlanta-based Delta has a younger work force than Northwest, which is based in Eagan …