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Employment Law

‘Emotional caregivers’ win FMLA coverage

05/01/2002
Truck driver Joseph Scamihorn Jr. saw his 73-year-old father fall into a deep depression soon after his daughter, Joseph’s sister, was murdered. After notifying his employer, Scamihorn left his job for …

Toughen your hiring policy to help neutralize union ‘salts’

05/01/2002
In applying for a job with a heating and air conditioning company, an applicant stated that he had been laid off from his previous job. But the truth was that the …

Employees have no privacy claim to company-supplied home PC

05/01/2002
For 12 years, a senior insurance executive used two company- provided computers, one at the office and one at his home. He had signed his company’s computer policy, agreeing to use …

Court can enforce flextime, ‘quiet time’ as accommodations

05/01/2002
A file clerk who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, a recognized disability, was easily distracted and had trouble completing her work. As an accommodation, she asked for permission to do some …

React fast, firmly to harassment; courts will reward your judgment

05/01/2002
A political cover-up usually gets people in bigger trouble than the crime itself. The same is true in the workplace. Trying to sweep employee misbehavior under the rug will only dig …

Draft bulletproof waiver deals with 6 court-approved benchmarks

05/01/2002
Courtney Melanson suffered two years of unwanted sexual advances by her supervisor at Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI). She took medical leave due to the stress and, when she returned, BFI assigned her …

Supreme Court drops pivotal age case

05/01/2002
Can employees file age-discrimination lawsuits based on the fact that a company’s action, while not discriminatory on its face, has an unfair impact on workers over age 40? In a handful …

‘Past-tense’ pregnancy isn’t enough

05/01/2002
A federal district court tossed out a case brought by an office manager who claimed she was harassed during her pregnancy and fired eight months after she returned to work. Reason: …

EEOC lifts controversial ADEA link to retiree benefits

05/01/2002
Bowing to criticism from employers and employee groups, the EEOC has officially rescinded its policy of applying the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to employer-sponsored retiree health benefit plans. …

FMLA recordkeeping hassles costing businesses big bucks

05/01/2002
Complying with the information-collection requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) costs large- and medium-size employers an average of $825,000 annually, says a recent survey by the Employment …