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Employment Law

White Employee Can Sue for Anti-Black Bias

11/01/2006

Don’t assume that only minorities have a right to sue you for workplace race discrimination. White employees also are entitled to work in an environment free of racial bias, and they can challenge hiring practices that interfere with that right …

Prepare to pay overtime to some delivery drivers

11/01/2006

You can no longer rely on the "motor carrier exemption" in the Fair Labor Standards Act to avoid paying overtime to delivery drivers who use vans and pickup trucks on their routes …

Georgia Not Likely to Ban Sexual-Orientation Discrimination

11/01/2006

It seems safe to conclude that Georgia employers won’t have to worry anytime soon about a state ban on sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace …

Heed lesson from the cola giants: Tighten cap on your trade secrets

11/01/2006

Now’s a good time to review your policy on protecting confidential information, such as product samples. Restrict access to as few employees as possible, and take swift action if you learn of any security breaches. As the biggest cola competitors discovered, trade-secret thieves will try anything …

OSHA fines Oriental Weavers $125,000 over fatal accident

11/01/2006

If you think safety issues may be lurking in your workplace, don’t wait until an accident or injury brings OSHA calling. Otherwise, the agency will surely do a top-to-bottom inspection and catch even minor problems. That can mean a hefty penalty, as one Georgia carpet manufacturer recently learned …

Georgia Tech helps employers design ADA accommodations

11/01/2006

Employers looking for ways to accommodate disabled applicants or employees have a valuable resource close at hand at Georgia Tech …

Immigration ruling sows uncertainty for employers

11/01/2006

If a recent ruling is any indication, federal judges may not look kindly on any immigration laws enacted by state or local governments. For employers, that means continued uncertainty over how to handle foreign workers …

Texas Supreme Court eases limits on noncompete pacts

11/01/2006

If you’ve shied away from using noncompete clauses with employees in the past due to the unpredictability of their legality in Texas, it’s time to rethink that strategy. Reason: The Texas Supreme Court last month reversed its 12-year-old precedent on compete contracts for at-will employees, and the news is good for Texas employers …

Workers must suffer ‘Adverse action’ to win bias case

11/01/2006

Federal law says you must grant employees "reasonable accommodations" for their religious beliefs and practices. But that doesn’t mean that any employees who are told they must work on their Sabbath have an automatic lawsuit …

Isolated comments on accent not enough to prove bias

11/01/2006

No doubt, your managers and supervisors know not to ridicule someone’s accent or way of speaking. But what if an employee’s communication skills suffer on account of his other accent? Are you prohibited from mentioning that accent and recommending remedial help to better communications?