• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Sex harassment investigator sued for giving bum advice

02/01/2007

New Jersey attorneys may be feeling their clients’ pain on a whole new level.  A recent district court ruling allowed an employee to sue the attorney who investigated her sexual harassment complaint (as well as her employer) …

Watch for New Prevailing-Wage Rules for Building Services Workers

02/01/2007

The New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development intends to enact new prevailing-wage rules for contractor employees or subcontractors who work on building services projects at properties owned or leased by the state …

Johnson & Johnson sued again, this time from the executive suite

02/01/2007

A former chief medical officer for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Inc. has filed a retaliation and discrimination lawsuit, claiming the company fired him for voicing product safety concerns and pushing for product recalls …

How to comply with N.J.’s sweeping Whistle-Blower protection law

02/01/2007

The New Jersey Supreme Court has described the state’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) as “the most far reaching ‘whistle-blower statute’ in the nation” …

Warn bosses: Don’t speculate on workers’ medical limits

02/01/2007

Supervisors and HR professionals must avoid stereotyping employees who have medical problems and never make assumptions about workers’ abilities to perform the job. Making uninformed comments about physical ailments is a quick way to land in court …

Beware personal liability for COBRA, FMLA, state bias law

02/01/2007

As if life in HR weren’t hard enough, a federal court has clarified when you may be held individually liable for mistakes in administering anti-discrimination and benefit laws …

You can pay lost wages, then fire reinstated employee

02/01/2007

In a unionized workplace, it can be tricky when an arbitrator—while interpreting a collective-bargaining agreement with the union—second-guesses the employer’s decisions …

Reversing disciplinary decisions can spark bias lawsuit

02/01/2007

If you punished two employees for the same misdeed but only one asked you to reverse the decision, consider the legal ramifications first. If you grant “amnesty” to one employee but not the other, you could trigger a discrimination lawsuit …

Part-time, ‘as-needed’ employees can still sue for bias

02/01/2007

Employees can sue for discrimination if you illegally figure their race, sex, age, religion, disability or pregnancy status into their termination. That’s true even if an employee is a part-timer who works only a few hours on an as-needed basis …

Inheriting staff? Setting higher standards is perfectly legal

02/01/2007

If you’re part of a new management team bent on improving overall performance, don’t let lawsuit fears keep you from imposing higher standards on inherited staff …