Employment Law

Handbooks: 5 simple steps for preserving at-will status

12/07/2012

The easiest way to make sure employees understand that they are employed on an at-will basis is to place disclaimers throughout your employee handbook. Five key elements will help those disclaimers stand up in court if an employee ever mounts a legal challenge to at-will employment.

Are you liable for harassment by independent contractors?

12/07/2012

You have enough to worry about with employees sexually harassing each other. But here’s another risk: As a new court ruling shows, employers can also be held liable for the behavior of third-party independent contractors in the workplace—even though they are not employees.

A slur is a slur, no matter the language, and it deserves discipline

12/06/2012

You don’t tolerate slurs spoken in English, do you? Then don’t put up with vile, intolerant and demeaning speech in other languages. It’s the content that matters, not the language spoken.

EEOC issues guidance for helping victims of domestic violence

12/05/2012

New EEOC guidance shows how Title VII and the ADA may affect employer efforts to assist employees victimized by domestic violence. It shows how employers might be inadvertently compounding victims’ pain—and how that might create legal liability.

This would so require Don Draper to fix a drink

12/05/2012

The fear of being sued became a self-fulfilling prophecy for Collin De Rham, a screenwriter for the hit cable series “Mad Men,” and his wife after they fired the nanny who cared for their young child.

A slam-dunk lawsuit? NBA charged with gender bias

12/05/2012

The National Basketball Association faces a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a woman who was once a senior account executive for the league.

Former CEO claims Brooklyn credit union retaliated

12/05/2012

The former head of the Brooklyn-based Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union is suing the financial institution, claiming he was fired because he refused to follow its policy: hiring only workers of Polish descent.

Track FMLA return history to show you don’t retaliate

12/05/2012

Track every employee’s use of FMLA leave and what happens when he returns to work. Why? If you happen to terminate the employee shortly after he returns from approved FMLA leave, he may claim retaliation.

EEOC can order employer to keep former harasser away

12/05/2012

Most employers think that once they fire a harasser, the matter should be pretty much over. But the EEOC has now won the right to order an employer never to rehire a harasser and to ban him from the premises indefinitely.

Common-sense court decision: Promotion isn’t adverse employment action

12/05/2012

Retaliation for filing an EEOC or other complaint is anything that would dissuade a reasonable employee from complaining in the first place. But what if the employer does something that most reasonable people would consider favorable?