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Employment Law

Associate loses temper, job and now lawsuit against DLA Piper

02/01/2008

Charlene Morisseau, a litigation associate in DLA Piper’s New York City office, lost a $250 million race discrimination lawsuit against the law firm. Morisseau joined the firm in 2003 and was fired in less than a year …

Recruiter files sexual harassment suit against K-Sea Transportation

02/01/2008

A former recruiter for K-Sea Transportation of Staten Island is suing the company for $16 million, claiming it failed to address her sexual harassment complaints …

2006 Farmingdale noose incident subject of new discrimination suit

02/01/2008

Fourteen black employees of 180 Connect, a Farmingdale cable television contractor, have filed a lawsuit over a 2006 incident in which a supervisor hung a 15-foot noose in a warehouse. Although the EEOC investigated and eventually dismissed charges brought against the company, the suit alleges the noose was part of a campaign of harassment against black workers …

Arabic school principal’s rights were not violated

02/01/2008

Free speech protections don’t apply to on-the-job speech, a U.S. District Court judge ruled, ending round one of Debbie Almontaser’s legal bid to regain her job as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn …

Why do employers have to investigate harassment?

02/01/2008
Q. I know I’m supposed to investigate harassment complaints. I just don’t know what law requires it. Exactly why does an employer need to conduct an investigation of a harassment complaint?

What to do? Employee who complained about harassment wants us to drop the investigation

02/01/2008
Q. What if the harassment victim wants the matter dropped? Do we still have to conduct an investigation?

Concerns during a harassment investigation

02/01/2008

Q. If we start an investigation about sexual harassment, is there anything we need to worry about while conducting the investigation? …

An age-Old problem: ‘Stray remarks’ have a way of coming home

02/01/2008

Conventional wisdom has been that isolated or “stray” remarks alone by an employer do not prove discriminatory intent. Conventional wisdom may be wrong. A recent 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals case (Tomassi v. Insignia Financial Group, Inc., 478 F.3d 111, 2007) has clarified what it deemed a misconception of the true meaning of the term “stray remarks”  …

Misclassifying employees as contractors? IRS wants to know

02/01/2008

Consider yourself warned: The IRS has said it will crack down in 2008 on organizations that misclassify workers as independent contractors when they actually should be considered employees. It’s a tricky problem for HR pros, who don’t typically play a role in classifying independent contractors …

Can you force staff to participate in wellness programs?

02/01/2008

Your organization, like many, may have embraced a wellness program to help employees quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more or participate in screenings for high blood pressure or cholesterol. You may have even thought about requiring employees to participate. But that’s a controversial practice that is likely to step on laws ranging from HIPAA to the ADA …