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Employment Law

What not to ask job references

03/01/2000

Q. Are there any questions we cannot or should not ask a reference when screening applicants? —B.B., Louisiana

You can recoup loss for payroll error

03/01/2000

Q. We direct-deposit the wages and salaries of most of our employees. Last week, two checks for the same pay period were deposited into an employee’s account. Can we legally have the bank withdraw the extra funds from the employee’s account? —M.F., California

Even ‘indirect’ victims of bias can sue

02/01/2000
Women mailroom clerks at several New York newspapers sued their companies, claiming discrimination in hiring and promotions. The women said the firms manipulated their hiring priority lists by routinely stopping any …

Get expert advice when accommodating an employee’s learning disability

02/01/2000
Jane Vollmert started falling behind in her workload when her employer, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WDOT), installed …

Walk the line on drug tests; bad policy lets workers reap benefits

02/01/2000
Jack Eaton got the boot after a drug test showed he’d been using marijuana and cocaine. Yet a court said he can still collect unemployment compensation, because his employer gave the …

No need to alter policy for employees who are expecting

02/01/2000
When she became pregnant, Michelle Spivey worried about lifting a nearly 250-pound patient in her job as a certified nurse’s assistant. She asked the rehabilitation center where she worked for assistance …

Don’t hand out authority without giving training to match

02/01/2000
Promoting lower-level employees to supervisory roles, even if it’s on a temporary or “acting” basis, can backfire if you fail to educate them on their new legal responsibilities. That’s what happened …

Average evaluations and lateral transfers may not be discriminatory

02/01/2000
The Export-Import Bank reassigned several employees in the early 1990s, and Regina Brown wasn’t happy about it. The 50-year-old black senior loan officer filed suit, claiming her transfer to what …

Severe but short-term conditions can qualify for ADA protection

02/01/2000
When a data support clerk was diagnosed with depression, she applied for and received 12 weeks’ leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Then she requested an additional three-month leave, …

Two key January rulings

02/01/2000
You must protect contractors from hostile environments. A Mexican-American owner of a company hired to clean parking lots at Wal-Mart claimed that …