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Employment Law

Quality checks of phone calls don’t give you license to eavesdrop

04/01/2002
An administrative sales assistant at an insurance agency quit after learning that her personal phone calls were being monitored and recorded by her company through a hidden tape recorder. …

Firing harassers is OK, even without formal company policy

04/01/2002
Machine operator Louvenia Hall complained that a co-worker repeatedly harassed her. When the company investigated, it found that Hall had returned the favor by harassing him, too. The company’s solution: Fire …

You don’t have to accommodate bogus religious beliefs

04/01/2002
David Cruz claimed that his religious belief as a Seventh-day Adventist prohibited him from joining a union. He complained to his employer about union practices and was fired at the union’s …

Assume that hostile work environment claims under ADEA will fly

04/01/2002
A collector for a financing firm, who was over 40, complained about age-related remarks made by her manager. Nothing was done and the collector was fired, even though she had received …

Direct employee retirement inquiries to new Labor hotline

04/01/2002
In the wake of the Enron debacle, the U.S. Labor Department has introduced a new toll-free number, (866) 275-7922, for companies and employees who have questions about their retirement …

Wage gap widens between men, women managers

04/01/2002
A new government report could spark more claims under the Equal Pay Act. It says that not only do women managers earn less than their male peers, but the wage gap …

Job-bias complaints reach new high

04/01/2002
A rash of recession-induced layoffs in 2001 helped propel job discrimination complaints to their highest level in six years, according to new data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). …

HIPAA health care privacy rules: They do apply to you

04/01/2002
It’s a common misconception: Employers have been lulled into thinking that the strict privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) apply only to health care providers …

‘Hybrid’ pay plan can kill exempt status

04/01/2002
A full-time home health care nurse in Cleveland was required to complete at least 25 patient visits per week, for which she was paid on a per-visit fee basis. She also …

Pregnancy bias: New census trends heighten your risk

04/01/2002
If you’ve only semiunderstood the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) until now, it’s time to brush up. Reason: The 24-year-old law is spawning its greatest number of claims yet. (See chart below.) …