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Employment Law

As boomers get older, age-bias claims spike: Avoid trouble by heeding new DOL guidance

08/08/2012
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy just unveiled a study, Employer Strategies for Responding to an Aging Workforce. The study urges employers to follow these strategies to avoid age discrimination complaints:

Co-worker complaints not enough to establish accommodation hardship

08/07/2012
Title VII requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee whose sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance conflicts with a work requirement, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. If you are planning to reject an employee’s request for a shift change as a religious accommodation, you must be able to support the claim of hardship with facts.

Goodyear settles disability suit

08/07/2012
Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has paid $20,000 to a former employee at a plant in North Carolina who claims she was fired because of a medical condition.

Planned layoffs can include those who took FMLA leave

08/07/2012
Employees on FMLA leave sometimes think they’re immume from being discharged. That’s not true. As long as FMLA leave isn’t a factor in the decision, you can fire those on leave.

Minorities disproportionately affected? Expect lawsuit

08/07/2012
If a pattern of employer practices seems to discriminate against a particular class of employees, expect trouble. If one employee sues, the court won’t dismiss the case until after expensive and time-consuming pretrial proceedings—if at all.

Employees who sue and lose are now more likely liable for court costs

08/07/2012
In a sign that courts want to discourage frivolous lawsuits, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the assessment of court costs after dismissing a failure-to-promote claim. This is an extremely promising development.

Honorably discharged and returning to work? Don’t make vets jump through extra hoops

08/07/2012
If an employee who is also in the military is called to active duty, is released with an honorable discharge and asks to return to his old job, you cannot place any extraneous conditions on his return.

Use greater experience, extra skills to justify why you pay some employees more than others

08/07/2012
Some employees wrongly assume that discrimination must be to blame if someone doing the same work earns more than they do. But even under the Equal Pay Act, employers are allowed to value employees with more highly specific skills and experience.

Mediator called in to clean up Summit prison shower dispute

08/07/2012

Female prison guards and Summit County officials have agreed to bring in a mediator to help settle a long-running dispute over a county policy that forbids the women from guarding prisoners who are showering. The guards claim the policy means they receive fewer raises and miss out on promotion opportunities.

OK to terminate, even after FMLA leave request

08/07/2012
If you were going to terminate an employee before you learned she wanted FMLA leave, you still can. Just be sure you can document when and why the termination decision was made.