• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Benedictine Health Services settles accommodations suit

07/13/2012
Benedictine Health Services at Innsbruck has agreed to settle a disability suit lodged by the EEOC. Two former employees initially complained that Benedictine required them to be free of medical restrictions before they could return to work from medical leave unless the restrictions were due to an on-the-job injury.

Unemployment may depend on seeking accommodations

07/13/2012
Minnesota employees can still collect unemployment benefits if they quit their jobs because of medical problems. However, before resigning and applying for benefits, they must ask for accommodations.

Ensure you can justify gender pay disparities

07/13/2012

There may be many reasons em­­ployees end up earning different salaries for similar work. Pay disparities often grow gradually, over time. That can mean big trouble under the Equal Pay Act. If you aren’t tracking all pay changes and noting the reason, you may end up liable for sex discrimination.

Note if worker drops ADA accommodations ball

07/13/2012

Employers and employees are supposed to engage in the interactive accommodations process once an employee indicates she may be disabled. If she doesn’t cooperate, document it. You can use that later to show she’s to blame for not receiving an accommodation.

OfficeMax faces EEOC suit for Sarasota retaliation

07/12/2012
The manager of a Sarasota-area OfficeMax made life so miserable for an employee who filed a racial discrimination claim that he was forced to resign, according to the EEOC. Now it’s suing on the man’s behalf.

DOL makes Gainesville eatery pay more than just tips

07/12/2012
“Nopalera” is Spanish for a “patch of prickly cactus.” That’s exactly where the owners of a Gainesville restaurant called La Nopalera found themselves after the DOL discovered they weren’t paying wages to Hispanic employees, making them work for tips alone.

Not a federal case: Gospel music, incivility

07/12/2012
Courts don’t tolerate religious har­assment, but they won’t punish an employer for occasional lapses in good sense, either. That’s the lesson of the following case.

Don’t be afraid to fire insubordinate supervisor

07/12/2012
Not everyone is cut out to be a boss. Some employees just can’t direct others or criticize their work. If a supervisor can’t—or won’t—do his job, termination may be inevitable.

Act fast to stop any workplace incident that smacks of racism or racial harassment

07/12/2012
Generally, a single racially charged incident won’t create a hostile work environment. But repeated or escalating incidents will. That’s why employers should take immediate, firm action to stop future problems.

Avoid new legal risk: Train supervisors to stamp out hostile work environment retaliation

07/12/2012
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has approved new grounds for discrimination lawsuits. It recently ruled that employees who file discrimination complaints can sue for retaliation if their employers punish them with a hostile work environment.